U.S. Policy

The Israeli prime minister has taken pains to accommodate the U.S. president, overlooking some potentially troublesome developments, but many questions remain on how the parties will convert a graceful reception into tangible progress.

The president should apply pressure on all sides, urging the Israelis to stop building beyond the security barrier, demanding that Palestinians end incitement to terrorism, and calling for Arabs to admit, at long last, that West Jerusalem is part of Israel.

Three Saudi summits in two days could provide powerful images of Washington's new relationship with the region, but key differences on terrorism, Iran, and Arab-Israeli peace will still need to be overcome.

Washington won't achieve foreign policy successes without better diplomacy, and the first step is to understand what diplomacy can and can't do.

The atmospherics surrounding the summit could not have gone better for the Palestinian leader, but reviving substantive peace discussions will require more-concrete follow-on measures.

The international community's vacillation and vague guarantees in the run-up to the 1967 war taught the Israelis an important cautionary lesson: when the chips are down, they need to be able to defend themselves by themselves.

No president has faced challenges like this since Reagan, and the patterns of the past thirty years are no longer a guide.

A former counterterrorism official outlines what governments are doing to address the threat of militants returning home from Syria and Iraq.

To take a strong step forward on a major ongoing conflict, the president should listen closely to a U.S. ally and make a clear statement in support of Libya's unity government and the UN-sponsored peace process.