Glenn Loury asks "Why Are So Many Americans in Prison?"; Robert Blecher and Jeremy Pressman on Israel's existential crisis; George Scialabba on the curse of modernity; Anatol Lieven on "realist" foreign policy.

A short story by Patricia Engel; Charles Johnson on artistic passion; Forrest Gander on John Ashbery.

Akbar Ganji on changing Iran from within; Hans Blix on global arms control; a look at religion in politics by Catherine Tumber; Nicholas Schmidle on Islamism in Bangladesh.

Fiction contest winner Pama Viswanathan; Katie Peterson on Tomas Tranströmer.

Nancy Birdsall, Abhijit Banerjee, Michael Kremer, and others look at the question, "What helps poor countries grow?"; Sarah Chayes on the future of Afghanistan; Alex Byrne on morality and the brain

A short story by Peter Mountford; poems by Jorie Graham, H. L. Hix, Susan Stewart, and Geoffrey G. O'Brien; poetry criticism by Barbara K. Fischer and Cal Bedient.

Kerry Emanuel leads a forum on climate change; responses and proposals for action from Nicholas Stern, David G. Victor, Judy Layzer and others.

Lawrence Rosen revisits Edward Said's critique of Orientalism; Vivian Gornick discusses reading H. G. Wells; Maureen McLane on the sex-ed wars; new poems by John Ashbery.

Nir Rosen reports on Iraq's descent into chaos; Elaine Scarry on military honor; Anatol Lieven on using American force wisely.

Charles Johnson on John Champlin Gardner;  Marc Gaba wins the 9th annual poetry contest

Claudio Lomnitz on Latin America's new left; Michael J. Piore and Andrew Schrank on the human costs of free markets; Mae Ngai on border control; Dalton Conley on Charles Murray and the end of the welfare state.

Susie Linfield on photography criticism; A short story from Yvonne Woon; poetry from Kate Hall and Hank Lazer.

Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee leads a forum on how to fight global poverty, with responses from Jagdish Bhagwati, Robert H. Bates, Alice H. Amsden, Ruth Levine, and others.

Rebecca Saxe on "the wild child"; Laila Lalami revisits R.K. Narayan; poetry criticism by Marjorie Welish and Katie Peterson; a poem from Ben Lerner.

Greg Grandin on Hugo Chávez; Helena Cobban on Hamas; Stephen Glain on Egypt's Muslim Brothers.

Alex Byrne on the mind-body problem; Alan Stone on Brokeback Mountain; Andrée Greene on Colson Whitehead; poems by Katy Lederer.