Most know George Soros as either the world’s most consistently successful investor or as a philanthropist — but more should know him as a philosopher and strategist about complex systems.

This is a guest note by Chas W. Freeman, Jr. This essay comprises Freeman’s remarks at the Camden Conference on February 17, 2011 in Camden, Maine. The Challenge of Asia The Greeks are to blame for many things. Not least of these is the somewhat preposterous idea of “Asia.

As I watch Al Jazeera and its reporting inspire and inform people across the Arabic world — and educate many English-speaking people who are stuck to their TVs, I think it becomes increasingly clear and obvious that Barack Obama has made a mistake not himself appearing on this network.

In the age of HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, Red State, Powerline, DailyKos, Foreign Policy (2.0), Daily Beast, Frum Forum and so on — it’s easy to forget that there are fantastic resource pages out there on what is happening around the world.

This is a letter from Richard Vague, a Philadelphia businessman and co-founder with Steve Clemons of the Afghanistan Study Group. Vague also publishes the daily eclectic ideas of the day blog, Delancey Place.

Saif Gaddafi has probably just assured the civil war he warned against in his finger-wagging comments that security forces would fight protesters down to the last bullet.

I very much support the creation of institutions and movements that support civil discourse — and applaud the announcement of this new National Center for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona which Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush will co-chair.

John Judis has a sensible piece out now, pondering what a new US strategy in the Middle East should prioritize.

In a program that ran this morning, I spoke to Michele Kelemen of National Public Radio about Hillary Clinton’s approach to foreign policy and reflected a bit on her policy and personnel choices.

In just about 20 minutes, at 3:30 pm EST and 1:30 pm in New Mexico, Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, is going to announce on KOAT that he will not run for his Senate seat again.