Reuel Marc Gerecht weighs the potential consequences of establishing democracy in the Middle East in the Weekly Standard (December 30/January 6): "There is a chance that war in Iraq and the creation of a functioning Iraqi democracy could shake the region into a more liberal order. The effort to build an Iraqi democracy could also prompt the United States to back democracy less timidly elsewhere. It is also possible that another massive al Qaeda attack inside the United States could reinforce the wake-up call that we received on [September 11, 2001] about the politically dysfunctional nature of the Middle East. Such an understanding, of course, will collide with Washington's increasing counterterrorist liaison relationships with undemocratic but 'pro-American' regimes."

In the winter issue of the Public Interest, Charles Murray addresses the ethical and moral issues posed by the use of cloning technology: "We are in the position of scientists in 1939. The science is in place. A moral person can say that human beings should not have this technology. I am willing to grant that if it were within our power to prevent human beings from having this, there would be a good moral case for taking government action. Yet if that cannot be done--and it cannot--one must face the fact that human beings will have this capacity eventually. The question then is: What can we do to minimize the damage and to enhance the benefits?"

In his column "Political Pulse" for National Journal (December 21), William Schneider discusses Al Gore's decision not to seek the presidency in 2004: "[Gore] undoubtedly learned that a lot of Democratic activists and contributors didn't want to hear from him this time around. They think he blew it in 2000. Gore was also suffering from the vice presidential problem. Being vice president is a great way to get your party's nomination. That's because the outstanding quality in a vice president is loyalty. Partisans control the nominating process, and they value--and reward--party loyalty. But once a vice president is nominated, he discovers that most voters outside the ranks of the party do not value loyalty."

In a statement issued after the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee's quarterly meeting in December, the AEI-sponsored committee writes: "The Federal Reserve Board has had before it for two full years the question of whether real estate brokerage is a financial activity and thus an eligible activity for financial services holding companies. The inability of the Fed to make a decision on the question, and the fact that the issue can be argued effectively either way, demonstrates the conceptual difficulty of drawing a line between financial and nonfinancial activities. The fact is that no line can be drawn between activities that are financial in nature and those that are not, and Congress should recognize this fact. Having said this, we are not excusing the Fed from its failure of responsibility to decide the question of whether real estate brokerage is or is not a financial activity for the purposes of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The Fed asked for and received authority from Congress to draw a line between finance and commerce, and now it must live up to the responsibilities it has been given. We understand the political pressures that have been brought upon Congress and the Fed, but that is no excuse for the Fed's failure to discharge its regulatory duties."

Resident Fellow Radek Sikorski

In an interview for the summer issue of Topic Magazine, Radek Sikorski discusses the new role for NATO now that Russia no longer poses a serious military threat to the western world: "The lesson of the twentieth century is that every time the U.S. loses interest in European security, war ensues. NATO is the military arm of our civilization, and that civilization faces increasing challenges around the world. Russia may become a candidate member if it starts to fulfill criteria of good behavior: toward ethnic minorities, toward its own media, and toward political and ecological dissidents."