The mood in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Dohuk -- the three largest cities in Iraqi Kurdistan -- is newly buoyant these days, and with good reason.

Julia E. Sweig discusses race and class in America in the run-up to the presidential election.

This new report on diversity in America finds that almost all communities—whether large immigrant gateways or small towns in the nation's heartland—have grown more diverse.

Hector Becerra of the Los Angeles Times identifies the importance of the use of Spanish by speakers at both the Republican and Democratic national conventions as both parties hope to connect with Latino voters.

Neil King Jr. of the Wall Street Journal explains that despite several shared beliefs, the Republican Party and the Latino community remain at odds over immigration and how this will influence the presidential elections in November.

Russell Jacoby writes in the New York Times how Anders Behring Breivik illuminates an uncomfortable truth that the rancor originates very often among kith and kin, not among strangers — and targets fellow citizens. A Norwegian citizen with Norwegian parents slaughtered some 76 of his countrymen.

The recent killings in Norway highlight the rise of anti-Muslim, anti-immigration feelings in Europe and the U.S. that could impede tackling other forms of homegrown terrorism, say experts.

Western Europe's burgeoning Islamic population continues to spark concerns about Muslim assimilation and a cultural divide.

To understand homegrown terrorism in Britain,  Kenan Malik looks to the failed policy of multiculturalism in this New York Times op-ed.

As violence surges in Indian-administered Kashmir, four experts say confidence-building measures between India and Pakistan are the only way to begin solving the territorial dispute.

Walter Russell Mead says the violence in Kyrgyzstan is shaping up to be "a typical modern horror story."

More deprived and dispossessed than the Dalits - or Muslims - the Adivasis in India remain not just marginal but invisible, crushed in the violent war between the Indian state and the Maoists.

Foreign Policy's Barney Jopson reports on the current status of southern Sudan as it gears up for a referendum on southern self-determination due next January, in which the majority of southerners are expected to vote for secession.

Rachek Schneller explains the divisions among Shi'a Arabs in Iraq.

Jeffery Stern discusses how "crowd control" measures sometimes wind up rousing bigger and angrier crowds is an apt metaphor for India's Kashmir policy problems.

Mildrade Cherfils of the Global Post discusses the recent recommendation by French lawmakers to forbid women from wearing head-to-toe Islamic dress in some public spaces, and how this proposed law relates to the question of "French identity," including issues of immigration, integration and religion.

The Swiss-born Tariq Ramadan writes that the vote to ban minarets in Switzerland is another example of Europe's "lack of trust in their new Muslim citizens."

Lydia Khalil writes that because of their national background, a surprising number of Arabs are able to relate to the viewpoints of Fox News.

Adam Hochschild emphasizes four major factors that continuously cause conflict in Congo: long-standing antagonism between certain ethnic groups, the 1994 Rwandan genocide, vast wealth in natural resources, and lastly, a vast population--65 million--in an area as big as the United States east of the Mississippi.

Five South Asia experts assess the importance of solving the Kashmir dispute in relation to U.S. security interests in the region and what policies the Obama administration should pursue.