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Lionel Beehner
Lionel Beehner is a term member and former senior writer at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors and frequent contributor to the New York Times Sunday Travel section. His writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Guardian Online, International Herald Tribune, Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News, Newsday, New Republic, New York Magazine, Slate, Seed, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs Magazine. He teaches op-ed writing at Mediabistro, and is writing a book about U.S. foreign policy and non-state actors.
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It looks like the Iranians have balked on their promise to ship lowly enriched uranium to Russia. One wonders if the whole thing was a ruse to tamp down the […]
It’s becoming a familiar theme. An election is held somewhere in the developing world that is hotly contested. The opposition cries foul and demands a recount. Allegations fly as both […]
We need to disabuse ourselves of several untruths being told about our war efforts in Afghanistan. One is that we are fighting for democracy. Democracy is fine for Norway and […]
Who shot Major Hasan? It sounds like the title of a bad Simpsons episode, were the storyline not so tragic. But what unfolded last week at Fort Hood followed a […]
It’s unbelievable, really. The US military is holding up Iraq as a model for Afghanistan. They’ll tell you it took a few years to get right but by golly, Iraq […]
Thirty years after Iranian extremists stormed the U.S. embassy and held 52 Americans hostage in Iran it is well worth asking: Isn’t it high time we serious consider reconstituting some […]
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards is getting in on the “smart power” bandwagon. It just announced the launch of a new news agency called Atlas to deliver the day’s news. The […]
To those who thought Obama would end all war, wipe out global poverty, save the environment, and eradicate terrorism in one fell swoop, they will be sadly disappointed by this […]
Radovan Karadzic is making a mockery of efforts to strengthen courts’ ability to try and prosecute accused war criminals. Karadzic faces charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, […]
I am in the heart of Tamil territory. I am surrounded by jungles and tea plantations. A few miles north of me is a camp of 250,000 internally displaced Tamil […]
In a vindication of sorts for Stalin’s victims – as many as 20 million – a Moscow district court last week ruled against the dictator’s grandson, who sued a Russian […]
A burka is visible from 20,000 feet. So is an AK-47. That is not insignificant, as the debate rages on over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. One alternative […]
Hillary Clinton, her elbow healed up, finally made it to Moscow, only to be rebuffed by her Russian counterpart in her push for stricter sanctions against Iran. Getting from nyet […]
Let’s hand it to Joe Biden’s savvy press secretary Jay Carney: the guy is EVERYWHERE. There is a full-on media blitz to buff up the veep’s image as he emerges […]
I understand why Americans love lists. It jives with our competitive ethos, not to mention our Trump-like love of superlatives. Ours is a culture of Top Ten Lists, Best-Of Issues, […]
Romania just unveiled a new memorial dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of gypsies and Jews killed during the Holocaust. This is no small accomplishment for Romania. The country has […]
I am befuddled. We are handing the Pakistanis a check for $1.5 billion next year and their top military brass is angry, calling it “typical American arrogance?” I agree U.S. […]
Um, why is Washington cutting Pakistan another check after it was revealed that only $500 million out of previous $6.6 billion package actually went toward fighting Taliban and other terrorists? […]
There are signs of hope trickling in from Gaza. Some say this rump state may have the world’s fastest growing economy (though its base point was not very high). There […]
The broken record of diplomacy skips on. Over talks with Iranians in Geneva, negotiators agreed to hold more talks. Hopefully at those talks they can reach some sort of agreement […]