Two political partnerships - Ronald Reagan and Yasuhiro Nakasone in the 1980s, George W. Bush and Junichiro Koizumi in the 2000s - helped forge the world’s most important “special relationship”. Takashi Inoguchi explains how personal chemistry smoothed Japan’s route to global influence. Read the rest of this post...

At 8 years old, Solana Larsen was a guest of Nancy Reagan’s at the White House. Now she returns to Washington to say goodbye to an era and finds personal stories at a political funeral. Read the rest of this post...

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan presided over prosperity, destroyed communism, and made Americans feel good about themselves. Is his achievement more myth than reality? Read the rest of this post...

Ronald Reagan’s mythic celebration of America is echoed in the official tributes and memorials that accompany him to the grave. Siva Vaidhyanathan acknowledges a genius of evasion whose disastrous social impact carried a saving grace that his Bushite successor lacks. Read the rest of this post...

The passing of Ronald Reagan has helped George W. Bush to sideline John Kerry. The media is strolling down selective memory lane, says Todd Gitlin. Read the rest of this post...

The sanctification of Ronald Reagan’s political achievement embodies a covert critique of George W. Bush’s foreign policy failures. But Godfrey Hodgson’s assessment of the deeper continuities between the two administrations opens up a fresher view of past and present alike. Read the rest of this post...

Ronald Reagan had two great secrets to his success: he was open-minded and tactically flexible. John Hulsman draws lessons for George W. Bush. Read the rest of this post...