There is an acute struggle dividing US voters that isn’t about Democrats versus Republicans or differences on issues.It’s about the public’s optimistic view of the economy during the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency and the simultaneously pessimistic view of Trump himself. The contrast is striking.　Polls show overwhelming satisfaction with the state of the economy, the most since the final three years of President Bill Clinton’s administration and the early months of the George W. Bush pr

As a middle-aged rock fan, I have a problem many of my peers would relate to: Every year, more of my favorite musicians die, and every year, the list seems to get longer. It took me a few days to get over the recent loss of The Fall’s Mark E. Smith; my wife was stricken when the Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan -- who was my age -- suddenly died last month.　I’m not sure, though, that I’m down with the way some innovative companies are trying to fill the void.　I understand the economics behind last

In a 2007 speech to a group of lawyers in Peru, the late US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia laid out his rules for being a good judge.　“First, a judge must be, above all else, a servant of the law -- and not an enforcer of his personal predilections,” Scalia told the group. “The good judge must suppress his personal views and must decide each case as the law dictates, not as he would have resolved the matter if he had drafted the law or the constitutional provision at issue.”　Madison Attorn

To hear some US politicians tell it, President Donald Trump’s threats to withdraw from NAFTA, build a wall and kick out the Dreamers may cast a decisive shadow over Mexico’s upcoming presidential election. Yet if Mexicans do vote for change, it will more likely be because they are fed up by homegrown woes, beginning with the blatant impunity that has fueled criminal violence and rampant corruption.　While Mexico’s surging homicide rate understandably draws top media billing, widespread corporate

If the Trump administration is really thinking about trying to give North Korea a “bloody nose” with a limited military attack, it should look carefully at Israel’s experience -- which shows the possible benefits of a quick strike, but also the difficulty of keeping a lid on a conflict once it starts.　Discussions with Israelis at a conference here reinforced the value of deterrence, but also offered some basic lessons: If you’re going to try a quick hit, don’t talk about it; don’t strike unless

In recent years, Russia and China have poured considerable resources into arenas typically associated with “soft power,” a term coined by the American political scientist Joseph S. Nye and understood as the “ability to affect others by attraction and persuasion.” Either directly or through compliant surrogates, these two countries have devoted billions of dollars to increasing their global influence through media, culture, think tanks, academia and other spheres.Despite these immense investments

The world has crossed over to a new nuclear era, where a fateful error -- rather than intentional aggression -- is the most likely catalyst to nuclear catastrophe.　American leaders have been warned more than once of incoming Russian missiles -- in each case, it was a false alarm resulting from technical or human error. Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin was mistakenly alerted to a possible US missile strike after the launch of a Norwegian scientific rocket.After every incident, we deceive ou

In 2016, the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum and Donald Trump’s election to the US presidency created an impression that Eastern European-style populism was engulfing the West. In reality, the situation in Western Europe and the US is starkly different.As political scientists Martin Eiermann, Yascha Mounk and Limor Goultchin of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change have shown, only in Europe’s postcommunist east do populists routinely beat traditional parties in elections. Of 15 Eastern