U.S. Policy

The Obama administration's decision to scrap missile defense sites in Eastern Europe against long-range Iranian missiles has a silver lining: a chance to boost U.S.-Turkish ties and counter short-range Iranian missiles at the same time. Washington has already announced that it will position short-range missile interceptors around the Mediterranean, and

Among the policy suggestions for heading off Iran's emergence as a military nuclear power is the notion that Saudi Arabia should use its position -- as the world's largest oil exporter and effective leader of the OPEC oil cartel -- to apply pressure. The kingdom is increasingly concerned that nuclear

A major explosion in Baghdad on 19 August that killed 95 people and injured 563 raised questions about the ability of Iraq's security forces to maintain stability during the ongoing United States troop drawdown. This is particularly the case since the major bombing attack took place barely six weeks after

With Iran's September 14 acceptance of a meeting with the P5+1 countries on October 1, the Obama administration finally appears poised to engage in direct talks with Iran. In entering these talks, Washington faces two obstacles: first, Iran's reputation for recalcitrance in negotiations and its stated refusal to discuss the

On the second anniversary of the publication of the highly controversial book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," written by University of Chicago's John Mearsheimer and Harvard University's Stephen Walt, it is worth noting that their central thesis -- that Israel is a strategic liability and not an asset

Despite Iran's disappointing response this week to the international call for negotiations on its nuclear program, the Barack Obama administration continues to hold out hope that some combination of inducements and further pressures will persuade the Islamic Republic to abandon its quest for the bomb. But the fact is that

On Monday and Tuesday, Iranian police raided offices connected to top opposition leaders and former presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. Many fear that the move signals that the regime's efforts to extinguish Iran's post-election unrest is moving to its next, perhaps decisive, phase: the arrest and decapitation of

Last month, Kamal Hassan, a Somali-American living in Minnesota, pled guilty to training and fighting with al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Somalia. In July, two other Somali-Americans in Minnesota pled guilty to similar charges, with the FBI continuing to investigate more than a dozen others who may have traveled

Assad to Obama: Thanks but no thanks. Early last week, nearly seven months to the day after the Barack Obama administration took office and began its careful, critical engagement with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, rumors swirled in Washington and the Middle East that the White House was