The International Criminal Court has closed its doors but only temporarily. When the coronavirus pandemic subsides, the ICC will be back in business. And a bad business it is.

If you're not familiar with the ICC, let me enlighten you: It began life 18 years ago, established by the Rome Statute, a multilateral treaty. Its promoters promised it would be a court of last resort, bringing to justice perpetrators of such heinous crimes as genocide. Skeptics predicted it would become another expensive international bureaucracy, usurping power, accountable to no democratic entity.

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COVID-19, the virus from Communist China, has not yet hit Lebanon harder than other nations, but no one will be surprised if it does. A small country sandwiched between shattered Syria and dynamic Israel, Lebanon is in failing economic health. Among the symptoms: Rising debt, spiraling inflation, soaring unemployment, falling foreign currency reserves and an eroding Lebanese pound.

Electricity and water do not flow reliably. The country's hospitals are short on funds for salaries and medical supplies.

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The Cold War was both a problem and a solution. The United States entered World War II to prevent German Nazis and Japanese imperialists from achieving global domination. When that conflict ended, Russian Communists sought to achieve the same goal. The Cold War was a means, short of hot war, to stop them.

The Cold War was an "endless war" until, to our surprise, it ended. At that point, America and what we called the Free World appeared to have no serious enemies, nor even rivals.

Frances Fukuyama, a respected scholar, raised the possibility that we had reached the "end of history," meaning that liberal democracy had become "the final form of human government." The United States began to spend the "peace dividend."

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Jimmy Lai was arrested last week. If you don't know who Jimmy Lai is, let me enlighten you: He's a freedom fighter. He's not fighting the patriarchy, or the 1 percent, or those who don sombreros on Halloween. He's fighting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is intent on subjugating Hong Kong.

Visiting Washington last summer, Mr. Lai met with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and members of Congress. He paid a visit to my think tank as well. I observed that he was putting himself in serious peril. He replied that the defense of freedom has always required risk and sacrifice.

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This week, the Trump administration is moving forward with its plan to reduce American involvement in Afghanistan. The odds of success are not high. At this moment, however, the plan probably is the least-bad option.

Initially, the Taliban has agreed only to limit violence for seven days beginning at the stroke of midnight last Saturday. If relative quiet ensues, direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government will begin.

The goal, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, is to reach a "political settlement to end the war in Afghanistan, reduce United States and Allied Forces presence, and ensure that no terrorist group ever uses Afghan soil to threaten the United States or our allies."

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