The promise of a new era of peace in Northern Ireland will be realized on May 8, when the 108 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly meet and elect a 12-member administration. It is to be led by Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest Protestant party in Northern Irel

Might peace finally be possible in Northern Uganda? Over the course of two decades, the conflict between the Ugandan government and Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army has caused the displacement of almost two million people, with many thousands killed or raped. An estimated 30,000 chil

The reaction of Robert Gates, the new secretary of defense, to the failure to provide appropriate medical care to wounded veterans offers a striking contrast to the reaction of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to reports that eight United States attorneys had been fired for partisan political reaso

As presidents, neither George Washington nor Abraham Lincoln spent time worrying about schools. Since the Constitution did not assign care for education to the federal government, that became the states’ concern. Until after the Civil War, however, the states pretty much left it to families an

The current scandal of sexual abuse at a juvenile facility in Texas is but one example of a phenomenon that has long been a dark underside of the U.S. prison systemthe rape of prisoners. The Texas case involves the abuse of youths by staff members at a state-run school. But nationally the abuse has

In the long march of freedom, revolutions one day are blocked by counterrevolutions that shift the aim of government from liberty to order. England’s Glorious Revolution was followed by the restoration of the British monarchy, and the French Revolution by the conservative Concert of Europe. Fo