Quiz question: Of the last seven U.S. presidents, which one issued, by a large margin, the most executive orders per year? Answer: Jimmy Carter. Gerald Ford is second, Ronald Reagan is third, Bill Clinton is fourth, and George H.W. Bush is fifth. George W. Bush and Barack Obama bring up the rear and are essentially tied. The numbers are revealing, because executive orders are the most formal steps that presidents can take to make policy on their own, and yet no one would rank Carter as the most

President Obama devoted only one sentence to U.S. nuclear weapons in his recent State of the Union speech, which was filled with a long list of proposals for his second term. While he has a lot on his plate for the next four years, the time has come for a major overhaul of U.S. nuclear weapons policy.The Cold War ended more than 20 years ago, but the United States still maintains some 5,000 nuclear weapons in its arsenal, with roughly 2,000 of these deployed on missiles or bombers. These weapons

If I had to choose a single word to describe the dominant attitude in Russian society, it would be “mistrust.” The meteor, or possibly small asteroid, that exploded over the Ural Mountains city of Chelyabinsk on Feb. 15 illustrated this as few other events could. The world saw the meteor thanks to the dashboard cameras that are so common in Russian cars. U.S. publications from the New Yorker to Wired delighted in writing about the dash cam phenomenon, unheard of in the U.S. or Europe. Russians u

Americans are on familiar terms with the sex scandal. Liaisons in business and politics are regularly reported in sordid detail, and typically explained as the boneheaded decisions of smart and successful men under the influence of power and libido. In the 1950s, such scandals briefly provided an opportunity for a larger national conversation, one that questioned the ethics of corporate America’s focus on the bottom line and generated the first systematic advice regarding how to keep sex from hu

The recent case involving an American couple from Illinois and a Korean baby highlights the importance of words, especially in a legal context. The Duquets and mainstream media outlets have referred to the case as an adoption. The question, however, is whether this case primarily concerns adoption, legal or illegal.The United Nations says, “Adoption is the legal and voluntary taking and treating of the child of other parents as one’s own in so far as provided by the laws of the country.” It adds

Although the word China doesn’t appear in the title of the “Strategy to Mitigate the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets” that the White House introduced Feb. 20, it was written between the lines in bold type. And that’s a good thing: The recent escalation in Chinese cyberattacks against U.S. targets is a threat to businesses and to the stability of diplomatic relations. It illustrates why Congress must take stronger action to bolster defenses against digital intrusions, and why the rules of cyberwarfar

Sen. Lindsey Graham said it best.Talking about the challenges the next secretary of defense will confront, Graham, a South Carolina Republican, warned that he will face “a world on fire.”So true, and the Middle East along with the larger Islamic world are the perfect demonstration. When have we ever seen such widespread turmoil, destruction and death as we are witnessing right now?Every day we hear about the continuing violence in Syria, Pakistan, Mali, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Nigeria

Energy Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal will today call an urgent meeting to consider emergency measures to cope with a possible electricity supply shortage in April, when Myanmar temporarily suspends its natural gas supply to Thailand during the Songkran festival.Pongsak warned that a shortage may result in power cuts in some areas, since Myanmar supplies roughly 20 percent of the natural gas consumed in Thailand. However, some energy experts say the suspension of the natural gas supply from Mya

Around 2.6 million Chinese people visited Taiwan last year, including just over 220,000 travelers on self-guided tours, according to figures from the Tourism Bureau.While tourism officials must be pleased about the healthy growth of tourism in Taiwan, any further influx of visitors might not be so healthy for the country’s main attractions ― Sun Moon Lake, Alishan National Scenic Area, Taroko National Park and the National Palace Museum.There have been complaints about visitors chatting loudly a

Industrialized nations ― including Japan, the United States and European countries ― and China and other emerging nations have agreed to avoid “currency competition” in which currencies are guided lower.It is laudable that the Group of 20 meeting in Moscow avoided naming Japan in connection with recent weakening of the yen, but it did not quench the underlying fire that could blaze up again into a new confrontation.The meeting was attended by finance ministers and central bank chiefs from 20 pri