In an age of pacemakers and microchip implants, the old nightmare vision of man melding into machine no longer seems completely far-fetched. Not to worry, says a noted observer of technology. Surprising things happen when the body interacts with technology.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union built the pan-Soviet workers’ paradise of Kaliningrad atop the physical ruins of the historic Prussian city of Königsberg. Now Kaliningrad--capitalist, impoverished, drug-ridden, and physically cut off from the rest of Russia--is struggling to build a new identity atop the political and economic ruin of its Soviet past.
Saddam Hussein may be gone, but the pan-Arab and Baath legacies remain forces with which anyone contemplating the future of Iraq must reckon.
Tensions between the United States and its European allies often ran high during the later days of the Cold War, but today’s conflicts are more numerous and frequently more severe—and they won’t be resolved without strong commitments from leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Louisiana Purchase wasn't just the largest real estate deal in U.S. history. It forever altered the way America sees itself.
Technology now allows individuals to trace their genetic ancestry and claim an identity. That same process of genetic tracing might have less benign consequences for the larger society.
In Iran, where the failing government is Islamic, the colors of protest are of varying and often subtle secular hues.
As the influence of traditional religions wanes, Europeans feel a yearning for spiritual forces they do not control.
The word secular in India now signifies an approach that has crippled a great nation by suppressing its basic impulses.