Donald Trump’s foreign policy, such as it is, rests on a massive and apparently indestructible contradiction. Trump wants the United States to remain the ‘essential’ nation, the best embodiment of Western ideals of freedom and democracy, while at the same time deliberately alienating many of our traditional ‘allies,’ whose support the United States desperately needs. American leadership becomes difficult, if …

It’s hard to catch a breath in Brazil. Just the other day President Michel Temer dodged a brick, surviving potentially job-ending charges in electoral court that he’d won his mandate with dirty campaign money. Political bulls promptly declared Temer a survivor who would not only salvage vital political and economic reforms but also tough out his beleaguered presidency. But in …

For leaders as well as friends, spouses and colleagues, grace is a precious characteristic. Whatever one thinks of Donald Trump’s policy choices, our nation has never had a president more lacking in grace. Whether or not Abraham Lincoln was the greatest American president, he was certainly its most gracious. On the eve of victory, Lincoln avoided triumphalism or crowing. Instead …