Esquire

In the years after 9/11, Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann worked at the highest levels of the Bush administration as Middle East policy experts for the National Security Council. Mann conducted secret negotiations with Iran. Leverett traveled with Colin Powell and advised Condoleezza Rice. They each played crucial roles in formulating policy for the region leading up to the war in Iraq. But when they left the White House, they left with a growing sense of alarm – not only… more

I was in a TGI Friday's in Cairo last October, sharing dessert with a group of stylish young Egyptian women, when one of them flipped open her cellphone to show me this text message: SATURDAY NIGHT DANCE PARTY BOMBS IN WORLD TRADE CENTER DJ OSAMA BIN LADEN FLY-IN COURTESY OF AMERICAN AIRLINES

My companions, two lawyers and a medical student, laughed with delight, the sounds blending with American pop music and the wind from the Nile.

In the months after September… more

The seven million Americans -- half of whom are under eighteen years of age -- who were listed by the Census Bureau this year as coming from "multiple racial backgrounds" herald the beginning of the end of multiculturalism in the United States.

Multiculturalism, the ideology that promotes the permanent coexistence of separate but equal cultures, gained currency a generation ago. On the one hand, it was a necessary corrective that encouraged Americans to acknowledge non-European contributions to the nation's cultural heritage.… more

A novel solution to yawning inequality in America is on the horizon: widespread wealth creation. Usually, alarms of gaping inequality are met with calls for boosting the minimum wage, the earned-income tax credit, and unions (all good ideas), or redistributing wealth through higher taxes. But wealth creation has been a great idea for the U.S. historically, and now we just need to do it for the majority of Americans that have little or no wealth.

And it is a… more