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Global issues, American foreign policy, American democracy and more

From Conversations With History, an interview with Nayan Chanda, author of Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped Globalization. A review of Buda's Wagon: A brief history of the car bomb by Mike Davis. The Palestinian conflict may not meet David Singer's threshold of what constitutes a civil war, but it does speak to an important conclusion about war in general: In contrast to the last two centuries, intrastate conflicts nowadays are far more likely to be internationalized.

From Foreign Policy, is it too late for America to win back its disappointed admirers? Not if the United States returns to its founding ideals and finally puts to bed the myth of “American exceptionalism” once and for all, says Anne-Marie Slaughter; and where's the love? Each year, the United States seems to slide ever lower in the world’s esteem. But not everyone hates America. Hidden inside a new 47-nation Pew Global Attitudes Survey are some surprising oases of support for the world’s sole superpower.

George III or George W? As Americans celebrate independence on the Fourth of July, some of them must be wondering if it was all a mistake. The answer: join Canada. La Résistance is Futile: This Independence Day, Radar pays tribute to revolutions that flopped. Michael Hardt on taking the revolutionary road: The US has been the world's principal anti-revolutionary force for almost a century. As Thomas Jefferson would have said, it's time to rebel. Subverting democracy: Pious words about promoting democracy in the Middle East are belied by the long history of US machinations, argues Joseph Massad.

An excerpt from The Rise of the Unelected: Democracy and the New Separation of Powers by Frank Vibert. Tote that vote: Political betting offers opportunities for both electoral hanky-panky and easy money. Voter suppression in America may have affected our last five federal elections. The voter suppression efforts uncovered so far have been aimed at suppressing minority votes or those who traditionally vote for Democratic political candidates. Was campaigning against voter fraud a Republican ploy? Jack Beatty on A Sisyphean History of Campaign Finance Reform: A look at how we ended up back where we began. The Center Shouldn’t Hold: The citizens of Belle Fourche, S.D., would be well advised to make the new geographical center of the United States transportable.

The Man-Crush Primary: Why are so many pundits enamored of the Republican candidates' manliness — and so eager to equate "presidential" with "masculine"? Mike Gravel, who brought avant-garde campaign ads to YouTube, is to political advertising what 50 Cent is to bullet wounds. The Heisenberg primaries: Candidates and media beware: you can't measure what hasn't happened.