North Korea's Kim Jong-Il, who passed away at the age of 69, has bequeathed a legacy of poverty and starvation to the country's subject population, and a highly uncertain future to his nominal legatees, the Communist royals of his dynastic police state.

While federal policy battles and international affairs dominate the news cycle, America’s state and local governments quietly wrestle with their own challenges.

Dov Zakheim admits that his own appointment as coordinator for Afghanistan reconstruction – on top of his day job as Pentagon comptroller–in 2002 was a reflection of the Bush administration's lack of a serious policy. His concluding confession is notable for its mature humility, both about the need for American power and on the part of those who wield it.

The Laffer Curve—the conceptual device illustrating how high marginal tax rates reduced revenue and economic growth—helped revolutionize tax policy around the world thirty five years ago. Today we need a new Laffer Curve—for regulation.  

Restoring the state to health can be seen as the beginning and the end of peace-building, but that omits the important role of economic growth.

Poverty will always exist, compared to others, but we cannot deny that quality of life, on a global level, has improved.

The U.S. must do damage control in Afghanistan. The recent WikiLeaks disclosures are undoing months of efforts by U.S. diplomats to repair relations with the Karzai government.

Construction projects across the nation have been delayed because bureaucrats, activists, and politicians are not ready to hand them out.