Nobel laureate Amartya Sen defined human agency as “what a person is free to do and achieve in pursuit of whatever goals or values he or she regards as...
COVID-19 has continued to be perceived as a force majeure and an “act of God” despite causing tremendous losses in life and livelihoods across the globe. But...
For the last three years, a bewildered world has watched the countdown to the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, better known as Brexit....
It is more than 500 years since Sir Thomas More found inspiration for the “Kingdom of Utopia” while strolling the streets of Antwerp. So, when I traveled...
Immigration-related headlines have become a staple in Europe, whether the story is of an illegal Malian immigrant scaling a Paris building to rescue a toddler...
In Hermann Hesse’s novel “Journey to the East,” the character of H.H., a novice in a religious group known as the League, describes a figurine depicting...
How should policymakers in the Middle East’s Gulf states manage their countries’ large expatriate workforces? In Saudi Arabia, foreign nationals account for...
In “The Hubris of the Zero Point,” the Colombian philosopher Santiago Castro-Gomez describes Rene Descartes’ 1637 declaration “I think, therefore I am” as the...
It is easy to discuss the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo as an attack on freedom of expression. But are we supposed to be surprised that a global terror...
Innovation is now widely acknowledged to be a prerequisite for sustainable economic growth. Whether the changes are profoundly disruptive, or merely provide...
The agreement reached between the United States and Russia to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons ties the disarmament process to negotiations aimed at ending...
In “Democracy in America”, Alexis de Tocqueville argued that the public’s trust alleviates pressure on the state, allowing it to function more effectively....
In the 1949 British film “The Third Man,” the character Harry Lime observes that, during the Borgia family’s rule in Renaissance Italy, the...
In 1896, the social psychologist Gustave Le Bon warned his contemporaries of the dangers of crowds. He wrote that, “It is necessary to arrive at a solution to...
The contrast between Lebanon and neighboring Syria is revealing. The merchant class in Syria was strong, but not strong enough to dominate the country...
A mercantile society is a society in which the political elite is the merchant class. In contrast with other societies, where social values may originate from...