South Africa in the post-apartheid period has registered steady growth, but mounting problems over inequality threaten the continent's economic engine, explains this Backgrounder.

Ray Takeyh writes about Iran's upcoming election.

There is a well-known adage that politics stops at the water's edge, but this tends to be more hope than reality. American history is filled with examples in which political disagreement at home has made it difficult for the United States to act, much less lead, abroad.

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Lael Brainard, undersecretary for international affairs at the U.S. Department of Treasury, discusses the outlook for the global economy.

Lael Brainard, undersecretary for international affairs at the U.S. Department of Treasury, discusses the outlook for the global economy.

Lael Brainard, undersecretary for international affairs at the U.S. Department of Treasury, discusses the outlook for the global economy.

Robert Satloff and David Schenker of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy describe conceivable contingencies that pose serious threats to Jordan's stability and provide recommendations on how U.S. policymakers can help manage potentially destabilizing economic and political change in the country.

A state of emergency in Nigeria's northeast signals that Islamist violence and the government's brutal response have rendered the region ungovernable, says CFR's John Campbell.

Benn Steil's op-ed for Paul Solman's PBS The Business Desk site looks critically at calls for "a new Bretton Woods." He argues that many of the critical precepts behind the 1944 American Bretton Woods blueprint were overturned by the Truman Administration a mere three years later, and that the operation of the Bretton Woods monetary system was far briefer and more troubled than is typically reckoned.

Gregory Koblentz weighs the U.S. foreign policy options toward Iran.

The League of Nations was championed by President Woodrow Wilson in a fourteen-point speech to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918, and formally began its operations in January 1920. However, the League failed to win Senate approval and is forever remembered as a major example of a communications breakdown between the president and the Senate.

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Daniel Markey outlines three priorities for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan as he comes in to his third non-consecutive term.

As former prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif looks poised to win nationwide elections, CFR's Daniel Markey highlights the vote's significance for Pakistan's democracy and foreign relations.

The odds of a peaceful power transition emerging from another summit on the Syria crisis are poor, but the U.S.-Russian push for renewed diplomacy is still worthwhile, says expert Frederic C. Hof.

CFR Senior Fellows Edward Alden and Shannon K. O'Neil discuss border security and U.S. immigration policy.

Generally, for advanced countries with deep and liquid capital markets like the United States, the best policy is to allow these markets to determine exchange rates.

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Jose Alvarez, Herbert and Rose Rubin professor of international law at New York University School of Law, discusses the growth and distributional effects and the human rights implications of global economic governance through bilateral investment treaties, with a focus on the global south.

Isobel Coleman hosts Joshua Kurlantzick, Fellow for Southeast Asia, Council on Foreign Relations, for a discussion about the political and economic transition of Thailand and Indonesia as part of a Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative series on Realizing Democracy: Lessons from Transitioning Countries.

According to Michael Levi , "selling Teslas (TSLA) to wealthy people today may be the best way to get electric cars to everyone tomorrow, and for the United States to eventually reduce its dependence on oil, with all the national security and economic benefits that entails."

Steven Cook inspects the role of Islam in Egyptian, Turkish, and Tunisian society and culture.