There's nothing like a rant by Kim Jong-il and an assault by pirates - all in the same week, no less - to highlight the strangeness of global politics in our times.

Scholars and strategists refer to these sorts of phenomena"”tinhorn runts and teenage gangsters harassing the most powerful nation on earth"”as "asymmetric threats" or the danger of "failed states." The puzzle, as yet unsolved, is what to do about them.

Piracy, of course, is nothing new, though its frequency is intensifying, and the attack on an American-flagged merchant ship, the Maersk Alabama, revealed an unusual degree of daring"”and, as it turned out, at least this time, stupidity.

Last weekend's triumph over the Maersk's pirates"”in which Navy SEAL snipers killed three of...