Timothy F. Geithner, the 75^th Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, will join the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a distinguished fellow. Geithner, who was previously a senior fellow at CFR in 2001, will be based at the organization's headquarters in New York.

France says it will withdraw from Mali once an African peacekeeping force is in place. To keep Islamists at bay, the United States is considering increasing its military presence in the region. A better approach is to focus on fixing the governance issues that fuel radicalism to begin with, says John Campbell.

Globalizing Torture is the most comprehensive account yet assembled of the human rights abuses associated with CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its yearly Budget and Economic Outlook report on "'baseline' budget projections spanning the next 10 years. Those projections are not a forecast of future events; rather, they are intended to provide a benchmark against which potential policy changes can be measured." The report covers 2013-2023.

Some experts believe al-Shabaab is at its weakest point in years following an African-led counterinsurgency campaign, but others warn of the group's resiliency in an unstable Somalia.

In a review of Al Gore's The Future, Jagdish N. Bhagwati says the former vice president mispredicts our future by misunderstanding our present.

Foreign Affairs editor Gideon Rose speaks with Sarah Holewinski and Micah Zenko about John Brennan's appointment as the head of the CIA and the current status and future of the war on terror.

The BCA established an automatic process to reduce spending, partially entailing a sequester of budgetary resources, if Congress did not pass and the President did not sign, by January 15, 2012, legislation reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the FY2012-FY2021 period. No such legislation was enacted by the deadline. Therefore, the automatic spending reduction process was triggered.

Al-Qaeda's affiliates "provide new justification for the Obama administration's efforts to turn elements of its counterterrorism policies, including kill lists and drone bases, into fixtures for a fight expected to last another decade or more."

Vice President Joe Biden presented these remarks at the Munich Security Conference on February 2, 2013. He discussed developments in American foreign policy and international security over the last four years, regarding Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear program, the global financial crisis, counterterrorism, and the relationship between the United States and Russia.

Throughout Chuck Hagel's marathon confirmation hearing, America's decade-long war in Afghanistan was noticeably overlooked. But it is curious to see the next secretary of defense receive so few inquiries from senators about the war whose end he will presumably oversee in the coming years, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

In her farewell address, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discusses American leadership.

Adam Segal says the recent Chinese cyberattacks on Bloomberg and the New York Times highlights both the willingness of Beijing to shape the narrative about China, as well as the vulnerability the top leadership feels about how they are portrayed.

In her farewell address, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discusses American leadership.

In her farewell address, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discusses American leadership.

Could Ohio, New York or Pennsylvania be the next North Dakota and "frack" its way to budget surpluses?

Its economy is in terrible condition and state authority is apparently breaking down. It's time to contemplate an intervention by Egypt's military, says CFR's Steven Cook.

"Last September's terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi left the unmistakable impression of a country teetering on a knife-edge. Yet despite its struggles, Libya is hardly on the brink of anarchy."

The U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services held this confirmation hearing for Defense Secretary nominee Charles Hagel on January 31, 2013.

A preview of world events in the coming week from CFR.org: the European Union hosts an international meeting on Mali; Egypt hosts the twelfth Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit; and parliamentary elections for Cuba take place.