The current American policy is to try to stop proliferation while simultaneously continuing to hold on to its nuclear arsenal indefinitely. But these objectives are contradictory. The current policy is a way of avoiding choice--a policy without traction in the world as it really is. --Jonathan Schell, "The Folly of Arms Control."

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Twenty-first-century America is one of the most litigious societies the world has ever known. Civil lawsuits in American courts are used to resolve an ever-expanding list of conflicts. But new forms of litigation can have powerful and wide-ranging consequences, both intended and unforeseen. This is especially obvious in one area long thought outside the power of domestic courts: foreign policy. Increasing numbers of individuals, including torture and terrorism victims, Holocaust survivors, and denizens of the dwindling Amazon rain forest, are now using lawsuits to defend their rights under international law. --Anne-Marie Slaughter and David Bosco, "Plaintiff's Dimplomacy."