Admiralty law used to hold that pirates were hostis humani generis: enemies of all humanity.

But they can bring all sorts of folk together. A headline that begins Iran welcomes US rescue is not what you expect to see. Nor an ordinary Iranian hugging a US servicemen.

See, Somali pirates are good for something.

Estimating the demographic cost of socialist policies in India:
These policies yielded economic growth of 3.5 percent per year, which was half that of export-oriented Asian countries, and yielded slow progress in social indicators, too. Growth per capita in India was even slower, at 1.49 percent per year. It accelerated after reforms started ( Read more... )

The other side of the Somali pirates issue.

Philosopher Michael Walzer on proportionality in war.

Judging a nuclear-armed Iran is likely sooner rather than later, and will likely have proliferation effects.

The Sri Lankan government looks like it is about to militarily defeat the Tamil Tigers. Its forces have captured a key pass. Though ( Read more... )