The U.S. has intervened more often in more countries farther from its own shores than has any power in modern history.

As publishers focus on blockbusters, they steadily lose interest in little-known authors from other countries.

During the Reagan Administration, so much attention was devoted to fighting Marxism in Nicaragua and El Salvador that Washington lost sight of longer-term challenges in other countries.

Rwanda has emerged from the devastation of genocide and become more secure and prosperous than anyone had a right to expect.

In the 1980s, the U.S. Army invaded two Caribbean countries, Grenada and Panama, to depose leaders who had defied Washington.

Other places are also generators of far-flung violence beyond their own borders - Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are obvious examples - but none has as long a history of war, resistance, and terror as Chechnya.