PARIS ― In 2005, at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, a prestigious exhibit sponsored by the Chinese government, “The Three Emperors,” celebrated the greatness of Chinese art. The show’s central piece was a giant painting in the European (Jesuit) style depicting the envoys of the Western world lining up to pay respect to the Chinese emperor. The message could not have been more explicit: “China is back.” The West would have to pay tribute to China in the future the way it had kowtowed to it i

WASHINGTON ― U.S. policy toward Syria is caught between two conflicting imperatives: President Bashar al-Assad must go, and the killing must stop. Unfortunately, it’s probably impossible to have both. A more realistic formula is that Assad must go, and the killing will continue ― with the U.S. and its allies trying to limit collateral damage. Because the U.S. seeks Assad’s ouster, the Obama administration should focus more on “the day after” ― including the near-certainty that violence will pers

TEL AVIV ― During World War II, Winston Churchill famously drew a distinction between “the end of the beginning” and “the beginning of the end.” That distinction is equally applicable to the unfolding Syrian crisis. Recent events ― the growing number of high-level defections from the regime’s leadership, the killing of three of President Bashar al-Assad’s most senior officials in a bomb attack, and the rebellion’s spread into Damascus itself ― suggest that, after a long period of gradual decline