Politics & Society

In hindsight, it is easy to understand why the Iranian public backed Hassan Rouhani. Less apparent is why Ayatollah Ali Khamenei let the result stand. One explanation is that he wanted to avoid a repeat of 2009. Another -- and one that better explains his permissive attitude toward Rouhani's edgy campaign -- is that the Ayatollah is ready to empower a conciliator who can repair Iran's frayed relations with the world and walk it back from economic disaster.

As Iranians head to the polls, much of the world is focused on the country’s domestic politics not on how how the vote will change its foreign policy. Even so, the election has exposed the range of choices that is available to decision-makers and the political limits that are placed on those choices.

Given that Chinese counterfeiting has benefits as well as costs, and considering China’s historical resistance to Western pressure, trying to push China to change its approach to intellectual property law is not worth the political and diplomatic capital the United States is spending on it.

Hardly the blow to democracy that many painted it as, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United will make American politics more competitive, less beholden to party bosses, and more responsive to the public at large. It may even help break the fiscal stalemate strangling the U.S. economy.