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This is an axiom, as true for foreign policy as it is for our faith. We may not be bound by history, but we are damned if we ignore it. The root of conservatism is the tendency to see value in traditions not as ends unto themselves but as visible reminders of the sacrifices of those who have gone before.

America began building an empire long before 1898. Stephen Kinzer, it seems, is yearning for a mythical America.

Last April, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf spoke at Georgetown University. Asked to assess the state of African democracy, she also spoke about the United States. Her conclusion was optimistic.

Robert Kennedy had rejected the anti-Semitism of his father, Ambassador Joe Kennedy, and had pledged to send 50 jet fighters to Israel to help that small, embattled country survive in a sea of enemies. For that, he would pay with his life.

Here are five things to know about the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) 2018 Annual Report and the US State Department’s 2017 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom.

Four hundred years ago, the Second Defenestration of Prague occurred when a Protestant mob threw the Austrian emperor’s representatives out of a castle window. The Bohemians then started the Thirty Years’ War, which changed the course of world history and led to today’s nation-state world order.

This week at Providence we focused on East Asian issues, including religious persecution in China against both Christians and Muslims and whether Trump should address human rights in North Korea if he meets Kim Jong-un.

Around one million Chinese Muslims have been detained in “education camps.”

Five principles of servant leadership from Jesus’ earthly ministry inform our challenge.