Author: Rachel Marsden

Greece is the birthplace of Western civilization. It’s also the birthplace of the kind of crisis that threatens every Western nation neglecting to pay attention to what’s happening here. Walking through the Greek capital on a sunny afternoon, it’s not readily apparent to the casual observer that this country of stunning natural beauty is grappling […]

Remember the Occupy Wall Street movement? The 2011-2012 protests sought to bring Arab Spring-type “revolutions” to the United States through a combination of urban camping and complaining loudly about the state of the world. The Occupy movement fizzled out because it failed to translate the whining into political action. Hey, Occupiers, it only took a […]

PARIS — A stunning photo has emerged from this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It shows a conference hall full of attendees with View-Master-style virtual reality contraptions strapped onto their faces, computers teetering on laps, and a beaming Mark Zuckerberg walking past them all. At first glance, the photograph is reminiscent of one of […]

PARIS — What if Russia and the Syrian government succeed in wiping out the Islamic State? It’s a distinct possibility as the Syrian army closes in on Raqqa, the stronghold of the terror group’s so-called caliphate. If such a victory were to occur, a critical narrative would die. Which narrative? Well, let’s ask the establishment […]

PARIS — Some of the people running for the U.S. presidency sound as if they’ve been watching too many tough-guy Hollywood action and science-fiction movies. During the New Hampshire Republican primary debate on Saturday, candidates were asked about the satellite that North Korea had launched into orbit just hours earlier. The launch has since been […]

PARIS — Despite living in an increasingly disenchanted world, we seem to be in the grips of a global epidemic of naivety. People are far too easily seduced by exalted words and fine sentiments, and the result is a lot of severely dysfunctional relationships. No, this is not a column about dating — it’s about […]

PARIS — “Can I ask you a professional question?” my French dentist said to me last week as I was easing into his chair. “Do you think Donald Trump is going to win? I’m not asking what you think of him personally. I just want to know whether you think that he has a chance […]

PARIS — Iran effectively rejoined the international community a few days ago, as longstanding U.S. and European sanctions were lifted and the country was granted access to $32 billion of its previously frozen assets. It’s the razing of the Berlin Wall all over again, as another country is opened up to the global market without […]

PARIS — Western Europe’s mindless and zombie-like prioritizing of humanitarianism over self-preservation is beginning to have alarming consequences. More than 500 women filed police complaints after a New Year’s Eve celebration in Cologne, Germany, with about 40 percent of the women alleging sexual assault. Of the 32 suspects identified by police, 22 are asylum seekers, […]

There’s been much hand-wringing over U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement of gun-related executive actions. Few issues spark as much passion in America as gun control, and it’s almost impossible to have a rational conversation about firearms these days without some people freaking out about having their guns taken away. Nervous gun owners should take a […]

Looking back on 2015, it can be remembered as a year in which conventional wisdom and expectations were inverted on an astounding number of fronts. THE RISE OF THE POLITICAL OUTSIDER: People are so fed up with the establishment that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has been able to maintain a wide lead by ripping […]

MOSCOW — Walking around downtown Moscow at Christmastime in the wake of a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, I was struck by a distinct feeling of déjà vu from my Canadian childhood. Not since then had I heard so much English-language Christmas music infusing the cold, crisp air, or seen so many decorations […]

PARIS — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump got into an interesting war of words on Twitter last week with a Saudi prince. “Dopey Prince (Al-Waleed bin Talal) wants to control our U.S. politicians with daddy’s money. Can’t do it when I get elected,” Trump tweeted. Trump’s social-media salvo was truly provocative, and not because he […]

PARIS — Candidates in the U.S. presidential race would be wise to pay attention to what’s happening in France. Over the weekend, France’s so-called “far-right” National Front won 27.7 percent of the national vote in the first of two regional election rounds. Anyone looking at this result through a strictly ideological lens risks oversimplifying it. […]

PARIS — At the opening of the Paris climate change conference (also known as COP21) this week, U.S. President Barack Obama amalgamated terrorism and climate change. “We salute the people of Paris for insisting this crucial conference go on — an act of defiance that proves nothing will deter us from building the future we […]

PARIS — The U.S. State Department has issued a blunt worldwide travel alert for Americans. Nothing cuts through murky rhetorical waters and diplomatic platitudes like a terrorist’s bomb. Suddenly, reasonable people are faced with a stark choice between keeping safe and taking the sort of laissez-faire approach to security that the Paris attackers were able […]

I’m getting tired of living in a guerrilla terrorist war zone and having friends ask me if I’m all right. If you think that I’m exaggerating in describing Paris as such, consider the 129 civilians killed (at last count) and 352 injured here in coordinated Islamic State-inspired terrorist attacks — mass shootings, suicide bombings and […]

PARIS — If you want to learn the identities of American special operations forces personnel, including members of the elite Delta Force, you may want to avoid the experience of being stonewalled by the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and just try asking the Chinese government instead. Last week, a friend of mine, a former […]

PARIS — Have you wondered how petro-states are handling the crash in oil prices? Looking at the situation through a strictly Western prism, it would be tempting to think that these countries might be in dire straits. But crisis is a matter of perspective and mindset. How we perceive it depends on our prior experiences […]

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the party front-runner in most polls, has positioned himself as the one contender who can’t be bought, and who is intent on making Washington a place less beholden to cash-flashing by special interests. It’s not the first time a candidate has campaigned at least partly on the basis of getting […]

PARIS — Going through some old emails recently, I came across a note dated May 29, 2001, from one Justin Trudeau, a 29-year-old schoolteacher at West Point Grey Academy in my hometown of Vancouver and the eldest son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. (This anecdote does nothing to dispel the myth that everyone in […]

PARIS — One of the most common questions that I’m asked these days is whether U.S. President Barack Obama is a brilliant bamboozler or just a bumbler. Some people are utterly convinced that the chaos in the Middle East — with America waging a yearlong bombing campaign against the Islamic State, only to be bailed […]

PARIS — As I arrived back home via Charles de Gaulle Airport this week, my taxi was caught up in an Air France layoff-announcement protest in which some executives literally lost their shirts when they were mauled by a mob of angry proles. Granted, this was still more civil than the days when the guillotine […]

Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly always end up getting reduced to pleas for financial support. It’s like an annual telethon without the phone number on the bottom of the screen. No number is required, since you’ll be donating anyway through your government. What’s most troubling about the current set of pitches is that […]

U.S. President and Commander in Chief Barack Obama has managed to accomplish such unimaginable foreign affairs inversions during his tenure that the heads of my U.S. intelligence agency pals are spinning. The Pentagon continues to churn out daily airstrikes against the Islamic State as if it’s playing a video game — with about the same […]

Two of the biggest global challenges of the past decade — terrorism and the 2008 financial crisis — have given rise to some well-intentioned legislation that has missed the mark. The U.S. Treasury Department is charged with maintaining the nation’s financial health. Things like money laundering and terrorist financing jeopardize that health, but there’s so […]

As tens of thousands of migrants flood into Europe from Syria — primarily as a result of poorly considered Western military intervention and the subsequent rise of the Islamic State — hearts are growing so large that they risk displacing brains. Emotional blackmail doesn’t lead to sound policy. There’s always a temptation to resolve sensitive […]

Get ready to blow a fuse on the popcorn machine. The U.S. State Department is playing WikiLeaks with the emails of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who serves as co-president of the Republic of Clintonstan and also happens to be running for the U.S. presidency. The emails come from the Republic of Clintonstan’s […]

Last Friday, 25-year-old Moroccan-born Ayoub El-Khazzani allegedly boarded a Paris-bound Thalys train in Belgium with a Kalashnikov rifle, nine magazines of ammunition, a pistol and a box cutter. Had he not been disarmed by passengers, including two traveling American military servicemen and their childhood friend, the incident could have easily become another terrorist bloodbath, barely […]

In the wake of the Iranian nuclear agreement, Gen. Mohammad Reza Naghdi, a commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, expressed concern that the United States would try to impose Western culture in his country. “We thought that they would bring Boeing technology,” Naghdi said, “but they want to bring McDonald’s.” Iran attempted to reverse-engineer a downed […]