While they acknowledge the importance of building and maintaining positive relations with China, South Koreans feel apprehensive about China's growing influence.

Every aspiring beauty-pageant queen knows what to say when asked what she wants most: "World peace." World peace is at least nominally what we all want most. But evidently, we are not very good at making it.

International efforts to ease Syria's crisis have been limited by divisions in the UN Security Council and a wariness about a military response, explains this Backgrounder.

Scott Snyder speaks to Balbina Hwang and Terry Roehrig on South Korea's contributions to international security.

Despite an ongoing threat from North Korea, South Korea has emerged as a producer rather than a consumer of international security goods. As a newly elected member of the UN Security Council, South Korea has the opportunity to use these investments as a "middle power" and responsible leader in the international community, says Scott A. Snyder.

This volume outlines South Korea's progress and accomplishments toward enhancing its role and reputation as a contributor to international security.

In the case of Iran, Richard N. Haass says, "Diplomacy needs to be move faster if is not to be overtaken by Iran's march to a nuclear weapon—and, with it, by the West's march to conflict."

An intensifying anti-Assad stance has disrupted Turkey's pragmatic regional policy and aroused concerns at home that it is on a war footing, says expert Steven Heydemann.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is facing the question of finding a middle ground between confrontation and capitulation with Russia.

Ignore the commentariat: Susan Rice isn't to blame for the complicated intelligence process following the Benghazi attack, writes Leslie H. Gelb in Newsweek.

Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi discusses Iranian foreign policy in the Middle East.

Jendayi Frazer, CFR's adjunct senior fellow for Africa Studies, discusses preventing conflict between Sudan and South Sudan.

Michael Scott Doran and Max Boot lay out five reasons for why the United States should intervene in Syria, arguing that President Obama is forgoing his "lead from behind" approach where it would benefit the United States the most.

The Afghan troop surge has ended and full U.S. military involvement is to sunset in 2014, leaving a fragile security situation and questions about the U.S. role, says CFR's Max Boot.

The UN General Assembly will likely address two "lightning rod" issues: ending the bloodshed in Syria and curbing Iran's nuclear development, says CFR's Stewart Patrick.

Sheila Smith argues that while recent tensions between Japan and South Korea over territorial issues are deeply worrisome for the U.S. government and for regional stability, the reality is that a stronger bilateral relationship can only come about if it is the Japanese and Korean people that lead the effort on reconciliation.

Sheila A. Smith discusses how Japan's move to replace its ambassadors to the United States, China, and South Korea with three career officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has to do as much with domestic politics as it does with tensions in the region.

In the wake of the deadly attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya, Bobby Ghosh writes that the newly-formed democratic governments which replaced long-standing dictatorships, as a result of the Arab Spring, has contributed to greater instability and a more chaotic and unstable Middle East.

Ed Husain argues that the U.S. should counter the anti-American narrative behind protests in Egypt and Libya by building aid and trade relationships based on mutual interests.

After World War II, Europe began a process of peaceful political unification unprecedented there and unmatched anywhere else.