Cosmopolitan engagements -- Lessons from Afghanistan -- The Iraqi debacle : democracy, desperation, and the ethics of war -- Twilight in Tehran -- Syria and its president : a meeting with Bashar al-Assad -- Withdrawal pains : Gaza, Lebanon, and the future of Palestine -- The Middle East spills over : the Sudan and the crisis in Darfur -- Conspiracy then and now : history, politics, and the anti-semitic imagination -- Incendiary images : blasphemous cartoons, cosmopolitan responsibility, and critical engagement -- Of reason and faith : on the former Cardinal Josef Ratzinger -- False antinomies : on religious conviction and human rights.