Because he is the first African-American president, Barack Obama's Hyde Park home is destined to become a national landmark like his idol Abraham Lincoln's house in Springfield. But perhaps even Barack and Michelle themselves don't know that the spirit of social justice inhabited that house at 51st and Greenwood well...

Here are some comments I gathered on what Obama's victory means for America's image
in the world. They include Kishore Mahbubani from Singapore; Tariq Ramadan, the controversial Muslim scholar in Europe; Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the author of "Infidel," Wang Jisi, dean of international relations at Beijing University; Garry Kasparov,...

In the United States we are not so familiar, as they are in Europe or Latin America, with the phenomenon of engaged intellectuals like Bernard-Henri Levy (or BHL as he is called in France) who are always there when events require definition or when conscience must be called to action....

George Soros, the financier and philanthropist, is author most recently of The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means. He spoke with me in Washington, D.C., where the IMF and World Bank are meeting, on Sunday.

Nathan Gardels: Let's talk first about the...

As the markets plummet and the value of my house and investments disappear where is my
candidate? Like everyone else, my anger is mounting with plenty of blame to go around. But where is Obama's leadership?

Fine, he should keep his calm and collected demeanor, but nonethless work furiously...

Joseph Stiglitz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. I spoke with him Tuesday about the Wall Street meltdown.

Nathan Gardels: Barack Obama has said the Wall Street meltdown is the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. John McCain says the economy is threatened,...

SHANGHAI -- When scholars from across China gathered here this week in the afterglow of the Olympics to assess their country's role in the world, their pride shone as bright as the waxing Mid-Autumn Festival moon. More than a patriotic triumph, the "best games ever" were seen as a knockout...

On Sunday I talked with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the elder statesman who was national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, about the Russian invasion of Georgia. He long tangled with Soviet power. Now he takes on Putin:

Nathan Gardels: What is the world to make of Russia's invasion of...

Monday evening at a meeting of the Pacific Council, retired General John Abizaid, the former commander of the US Central Command for Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003-2007, offered lots of wisdom and an impressive analysis of the Middle East. In this election season, every American, including Barack Obama and John...

Robert Reich was U.S. secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. His most recent book is Supercapitalism. He spoke with me about the economic crisis.

Nathan Gardels: Now FNMA (the Federal National Mortgage Association) -- one of the pillars of the post-depression American economic order -- is in trouble. What...

TOKYO -- No sooner had Bernard Kouchner, the most pro-American French foreign minister in memory, concluded that the "magic is gone" for America in the world than Obamamania swept Europe after the lanky pol with big ears seized the Democratic nomination for president.

The foreign policy director of the German...

Madeleine Albright, who met with North Korea's Kim Jong-il when she was U.S. secretary of state during the Clinton administration, is now an adviser to Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency.

TOKYO -- Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's announcement that Japan will cut carbon emissions by 60-80 per cent by 2050 sets a serious tone for the upcoming G-8 Summit at Lake Toya, Japan.

Even if real action remains stymied in the lame duck days of the Bush administration, Japan's leadership...

If Barack Obama succeeds in his campaign against John McCain and becomes president of the United States, he will have to deal with much deeper issues beyond Iraq, namely the "rise of the rest" as China, India and the developing world aspire to catch up with America and want a...

To anyone who has lived through a strong earthquake, as I have here in California, the first thought that goes out to the Chinese in Sichuan province is one of great sympathy and sorrow. One moment your world is intact, and then, out of the blue, everything is in pieces....

In the following interview, Nobel laureate Joe Stiglitz talks about how the economy has replaced Iraq as the central issue in the presidential campaign, but how the two are closely related.

Stiglitz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. He is the author, with Linda Bilmes, of...

DAVOS - As the global elite gathers here in Davos to ponder how "collaborative initiatives" might bring the world closer together, there are a set of deep and broad challenges that suggest the trend is moving in a very different, if not opposite, direction.

First, we are witnessing the...

Benazir Bhutto's assassination is a great victory for Al Qaeda, whether it carried out the attack directly, through rogue agents in Pakistan's intelligence services or, as Bhutto herself feared before her death, in conspiracy with them. Bhutto's murder is the closest they've come to killing a Western leader; it is...

To be clear at the outset, I'm not a partisan of either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton and think both would take the country in the right direction. But this whole debate over "foreign policy experience" seems misplaced. If we chose a president on that basis, clearly Joe Biden or...

I thought the days were long gone when I would publish Russian dissidents in my global newspaper network, as I did 25 years ago, but apparently not. Here, chess champion Garry Kasparov takes a penetrating swipe at Vladimir Putin's managed democracy.

MOSCOW -- The meaning of last Sunday's Russian parliamentary...