This issue guide provides a range of background and analysis on Japan's earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis.

As Japan struggles to control problems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, it also must grapple with questions about nuclear power in the face of immediate and long-term energy needs.

With the nuclear incident at the Fukushima power plant unabated, Japanese officials have come under fire for failing to control the crisis as concern about radiation grows.

Blake Clayton says what's really behind New York's epic gasoline lines in the wake of Hurricane Sandy is the problem of getting gas and power to gas stations, with panic buying making things all the worse.

CFR's Senior Fellow for Japan Studies, Sheila A. Smith, discusses the political and economic state of Japan one year after the earthquake and tsunami.

Secretary of the U.S. Navy Raymond E. Mabus discusses the operations of the U.S. Navy as it responds to high-end combat, builds partnerships, and implements humanitarian assistance and disaster relief programs around the world.

Damage to Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has reignited debate over the safety of nuclear power and highlighted questions over aging power plants, safety procedures, and waste disposal.

One year after Japan's triple disasters, questions persist about the ability of the world's third-largest economy to rebound and how its struggling political system can mount serious reforms, writes CFR's Sheila Smith.

Japan's ability to rebound from its triple disaster in March will require more than just rebuilding; it will demand restructuring in areas from energy and farm policy to decentralization of power, write Brian P. Klein and CFR's David S. Abraham.

Japan bears only some resemblance to the Asian countries ravaged by the 2004 tsunami, but their recovery experiences could provide valuable insights to leaders in Tokyo, writes CFR's Joshua Kurlantzick.

While many questions remain about the problems at Fukushima nuclear plant, comparisons with the 1986 Chernobyl incident suggest Japan's government is taking the right steps to mitigate radiation damage, says CFR's Laurie Garrett.

One year after the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Japan is facing a dilemma of how to clean up the disaster and how to meet current and future energy needs, says expert Charles D. Ferguson, even as the global nuclear industry continues to face the accident's aftershocks.

Nuclear expert John Ahearne says critics should be careful about drawing conclusions when so much remains unknown, but regulators will need to proceed with safety reviews to bolster public confidence.

Despite turbulence in financial markets, Japan's multiple disasters will likely not have a major global economic impact, and reconstruction will provide a boost to the Japanese economy in the long term, says CFR's Sebastian Mallaby.

Almost a year after the Fukushima disaster, fifty-two of Japan's fifty-four nuclear power plants have been shut down. The reactor explosion destroyed the population's trust in nuclear energy. But the atomic lobby--and the country's industrial needs--could block a possible phase-out, writes Wieland Wagner at Der Spiegel.

Before a historic earthquake-tsunami combination killed thousands and triggered a partial meltdown at one of its nuclear power plants, Japan won a reputation around the world for being extraordinarily prepared for disaster. In the aftermath of Fukushima Daiichi, Washington must now evaluate if the United States could do any better than – or even as well as – Japan in similar circumstance.

In the wake of the accident of Fukushima Daiichi, Davd Biello reports that China will temporarily pause its plan to build the most new nuclear reactors in the world, but it will not halt it.

Christian Parenti of The Nation believes that the message out of Fukushima is clear: our own fleet of leaky old nuclear plants should be decommissioned now.

Tom Zeller Jr. explains the system of a Mark 1 nuclear reactor, like the one currently failing at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. He reveals that experts had long cautioned about the weak design of these reactors and predicted a possible nuclear disaster.

David Ropeik takes a realistic look at nuclear energy in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster.