Ever since its founding in 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has maintained an aggressive and bellicose international security posture. Today, fully two decades after the end of the Cold War, North Korea's external defense and security policies look arguably more extreme and anomalous than ever.

The removal of a top Communist party official doesn’t tell us much.

Vincent and Carmen Reinhart present evidence that the view that modest alterations to monetary policy have vast consequences is inconsistent with theory and not supported by evidence.

Public pension accounting standards encourage state and local governments to promise too much, fund too little and take too much risk with their investments.

Venezuelans may have to wait to sift through the rubble of the Chavez regime before they get a clear explanation for Mr. Chavez's recent reckless decisions. In the meantime, regardless of whether Mr. Chavez knows he is dying sooner or hopes he is dying later, it is apparent that he doesn't give a damn about the harm he is doing to the Venezuelan people or the mess he will leave behind.

The Cold War strategic reality that existed in 1988 has passed into history. And yet the U.S. (and Russia) remain constrained by the INF Treaty's terms, even while today's strategic threats—China, Iran and North Korea—come from states outside the treaty.

The Russian Federation today faces the unprecedented dual challenge of simultaneously reversing the plummeting birth rates and skyrocketing mortality rates of the 1990s.

President Obama's efforts to appease Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government have increased Bashir's perception of U.S. weakness and reinforced his inclination and willingness to use military force to suppress Sudanese opposition in the South, Darfur, and elsewhere.