Much Ado About the Islamic State

Terrible though they may be, even the worst events of late — from IS to Ebola — may not make a lasting imprint on the world. Or your investment portfolio.

Isn't 2014 wonderful? We've got a new war going against the Islamic State. Separatism continues to simmer in Catalonia and elsewhere. There's a frozen conflict in Ukraine and Ebola cases popping up outside Africa. Beijing faces demonstrations in Hong Kong, while drug gangs corrupt Mexican politics and commit crimes every bit as heinous as the Islamic State's. There's shelling on the India-Pakistan border, and Hezbollah detonated a bomb on the border between Israel and Lebanon. And back in Washington, another former official is blaming everyone but himself for shortcomings in U.S. foreign policy.

It is safe to say that this is not the "new world order" that President George H.W. Bush and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft had in mind when the Soviet Union collapsed and left the United States "perched on the pinnacle of power."...

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