By Joseph S. Nye, Jr.CAMBRIDGE — When I told a friend I had just written a book on morality and foreign policy, she quipped: “It must be a very short book.” Such scepticism is common.

By Charles TannockBRATISLAVA — The news from Lebanon in recent weeks has been grim. As street protests in Beirut and other cities intensify, so does the country’s economic suffering.

By Ian Buruma NEW YORK — Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland was the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Although one of the Founding Fathers, as a Catholic Carroll was not allowed to hold public office.

By Ramesh ThakurCANBERRA — Owing to the smoke from nearby wildfires, Canberra this month has had the world’s worst air-quality index, with readings 20 times above the official hazardous threshold.

By Andrés Velasco, Luis Felipe CéspedesSANTIAGO — In Santiago, Chile, a massive graffito by the exit ramp of a brand-new, privately-built urban freeway reads: “Marx was right!” Indeed, capitalist development begets its own contradictions, as the scribbling itself attests.Recent m

By Sigmar Gabriel and Christoph BornscheinBERLIN — It is increasingly clear that the European Union was not built to be a global actor. The EU is a strictly European idea, designed to bring peace and prosperity to a region ravaged by centuries of incessant war.

By Kaushik BasuMUMBAI — I write this not as a professional economist, nor as a policymaker, but as a citizen of a tiny planet that is spinning through a vast universe that we barely understand.

By Yanis VaroufakisATHENS — Anti-capitalists had a miserable year.

By Rula MaayahBETHLEHEM — At this time of the year, billions of people around the world turn their gaze to Palestine, the birthplace of Jesus Christ.