"...[T]he Arctic Council agreed to let nations that, at last look at the map, are not located anywhere near the Arctic, join as observers. It may seem a diplomatic nicety, but it is the recognition that the Arctic Council nations no longer have a monopoly on the region. China, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Singapore are on a hunt for more energy and have their eyes on the waning polar ice caps."

"Immigration reform is about meeting the economic needs of the United States in the 21st century, from rural labor to Silicon Valley start-ups. It is about creating a border enforcement policy that is tough but also not cruel. It is about the United States. It is not about Mexico."

"Enter John Kerry, whose status as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee made him a possible broker of compromise. While promoters of the Magnitsky bill refused to backtrack on their principles, opponents argued that Russian and US relations are too consequential to be defined by the death of a single lawyer. With these dueling priorities, months passed. But the legislative process can be cunning and capable. The Magnitsky bill was linked to something that would make the Russians happy: normalized trade status."

"Russia's move this week to take advantage of the melting ice in international waters was predictable. But this groundbreaking event was largely ignored because of the controversy in Washington over who said what, and whether their words might affect their ability to become secretary of state."

"Companies that manage the transport of all these resources can have tremendous impact on any nation's survival, making the movement of goods across the seas an unrecognized animating force in foreign affairs. The sanctions and the resulting economic crisis made the route through the Strait of Hormuz unsustainable for this major shipping line."

"The United States is the only modern society that does not have a federal agency responsible for port strategy. Maritime planning is left to the states. The White House can merely promise expedited engineering review, as it did last month, of the port changes in New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, all trying to get to that depth of 50 feet, fast."

"To remain competitive in a global transportation industry where the vast majority of all goods are moved on waterways, the canal had to change. Ships that are too large for the canal take their goods elsewhere: to Suez, or the Straits of Malacca (between Malaysia and Indonesia), or the ports of Los Angeles where cargo is routed on the 'land bridge' of railways and highways from West to East Coast. Or the large ships are unloaded at the base of the Panama Canal onto smaller vessels, a process that occurs here every Friday–Sunday."

"Later this week the heads of state and government of 34 nations in this hemisphere will meet in Cartagena, Colombia, at the sixth Summit of the Americas. Obama will be there, and all our American brethren, minus Cuba and Ecuador, will too. They will talk about their economies, energy supplies, trade agreements, and commerce. They will talk about drugs, of course, and the insatiable US appetite for them. But they will not be talking about whether classes in Hispanic studies are inherently anti-Anglo."