Libya and the tides of history. Noah Millman reflects on Shakespeare and the lessons from the Libyan war.

Blaming the generals isn’t enough. Andrew Bacevich reviews Daniel Bolger’s Why We Lost.

Rand Paul and late-regime politics. Julia Azari sees all of the early attention being paid to Rand Paul’s likely presidential candidacy as evidence that “we are nearing the end of the Reagan regime.”

The damaging myth of “winning” the Iraq war. Paul Pillar explains why the conceit that the war was ever won is so harmful to U.S. foreign policy.

The myth of the caliphate. Nick Danforth reviews the history of a contested idea.

The colonies of the “caliphate.” Der Spiegel reports on ISIS’ sympathizers in North Africa.

Reflections on the Arab uprisings. Marc Lynch reviews the claims and predictions political scientists made about events in the Arab uprisings from 2011 on.

UKIP keeps rolling. The Economist reports on UKIP’s latest by-election victory.