WASHINGTON ― The assault on Osama bin Laden ― as quick and ruthless an operation as you would see in any spy movie ― shows that the CIA and the military’s super-secret Joint Special Operations Command have combined to create what amounts to a highly effective killing machine. The shorthand for these operations is “find, fix, finish.” The CIA and other intelligence agencies typically provide the fi

Last week, I flew to Los Angeles to chair an international conference at the University of Southern California. When I landed at L.A. airport, I found more than 200 international passengers lined up at immigration to receive an entry stamp. Unfortunately, there were only six officers processing the seemingly endless, serpentine lines. Worse, they were doing their job in a leisurely manner without

WASHINGTON ― Think of Pakistan for a moment as the equivalent of Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt. Both countries have strong militaries and weak civilian governments. Both are nominally America’s partners in the war against al-Qaida, but both chafe at U.S. pressure. In each nation, the street is buzzing with talk of the nation’s shame and humiliation under American hegemony. In Egypt, this pressure cooker l

I admit it: I love Kate Middleton. I love that she defied the usual dating advice and waited years for her prince to come around. I love that she’s a commoner but still wears those outrageous feathered hats. Most of all, I love that the hats are the most remarkable thing about her.Pretty without being distractingly gorgeous, fashionable without pushing boundaries, reserved without being shy, Cathe

SEOUL ― As China continues its unremitting rise, people throughout East Asia are wondering whether their states will ever be able to achieve the peaceful, stable relations that now characterize Europe. Given the regularity of serious diplomatic spats ― over everything from tiny atolls in the South China Sea to the legacy of World War II ― this may sound like an elusive dream. But, with nationalism