Inside Power, Inc. - By David Rothkopf. The sales revenues of the world's largest company, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., are higher than the GDPs of all but 25 countries.
At 2.1 million, its employees outnumber the populations of almost 100 nations. The world's largest investment manager, a low-profile New York company named BlackRock, manages $3.5 trillion in assets -- greater than the national reserves of any country on the planet. In 2010, a private philanthropic organization, the $33.5 billion-endowed Gates Foundation, distributed more money for causes worldwide than the World Health Organization had in its annual budget.
The statistics are eye-popping, but this is no parlor game. Over the last century, the world's biggest private-sector organizations have come to dwarf all but the largest governments in resources, global reach, and influence. Striking the right balance between private and public power is the fundamental challenge of our age. Supercitizens and Semistates. The world is run today by what I call supercitizens -- super-empowered global elites that straddle borders, move markets, and make or break politicians.
What makes a supercitizen different from you and me? With apologies to Mitt Romney, they're not actually people; they're entities designed much like comic book superheroes to have remarkable powers. To begin with, they're immortal (having the ability to survive the demise of their owners was one reason companies were first created). They operate globally, their scant national ties affording them great flexibility, mobility, and leverage. And of course, they're made super by virtue of their size: Their resources and influence vastly outstrip those of individual citizens and often entire countries.
In other words, the world's corporate behemoths really do enjoy powers greater than all but the biggest countries. How the top companies on Forbes magazine's Global 200 0 list stack up against some of the world's countries. Continental Breakup. International Relations final review. Netanyahu and Barak V. Israel's Defense Community. Hunky British actor Kit Harington on playing the courageous emo-swordsman on the HBO fantasy epic and the real coldness we'll see this season in the most famous bastard in Westeros.
When we last left Jon Snow (Kit Harington), the bastard son of the late Lord Eddard Stark, he was serving as a spy, marching South towards Castle Black with the Free Folk army and Mance Rayder. After losing his virginity to Ygritte (Rose Leslie), a redheaded wildling woman, and barely scaling the Wall, Snow is ordered by (a very jealous) Orell to kill an old man. He refuses, kills Orell, and escapes the wildling bunch. Later, his wildling love shoots his back full of arrows—intentionally leaving him alive—and Snow barely makes it back to Castle Black. In the Season 4 premiere, “Two Swords,” Snow is tried before five sworn brothers of the Night’s Watch, and confesses to killing Qhorin Halfhand, living as a spy amongst the wildlings, and sleeping with one, thereby breaking his vow of celibacy.
The Most Important War You Probably Know Nothing About - By James Traub. Can you feel the excitement in the air?
June 18 is the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, and I'm sure you're thinking: Why no parades down Main Street? Why no historical reenactors costumed as President James Madison, who signed the declaration of war, or Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the Hero of Lake Erie? Because Americans have a short historical memory, that's why. Or perhaps it's because we don't commemorate equivocal wars. But don't be fooled by the absence of huzzahs: The War of 1812 was one of the great liberating events of American history, and I'm here to tell you why. One of the buried facts of our collective past is that the United States came very close to dissolving long before slavery sundered the union.
American politics consisted of, in effect, an "English" party and a "French" party. France was the chief provocateur during this period. For the previous decades, American politics had consisted essentially of foreign policy. So now you know. Mark Wilson/Getty Images. Timeline of United States military operations. This is a timeline of United States government military operations.
The list through 1975 is based on Committee on International Relations (now known as the Committee on Foreign Affairs). Dates show the years in which U.S. government military units participated. The bolded items are the U.S. government wars most often considered to be major conflicts by historians and the general public. Note that instances where the U.S. government gave aid alone, with no military personnel involvement, are excluded, as are Central Intelligence Agency operations.
Extraterritorial and major domestic deployments[edit] Portions of this list are from the Congressional Research Service report RL30172.[1] 1775–1799[edit] 1775–83 – American Revolutionary War: an armed struggle for secession from the British Empire by the Thirteen Colonies that would subsequently become the United States. 1785–95 – Northwest Indian War: a series of battles with various native tribes in present-day Ohio.