Although last winter's peaceful popular uprisings damaged the jihadist brand, they also gave terrorist groups greater operational freedom.

China, which invests heavily in Iran's energy sector, is the linchpin of the sanctions regime against Iran.

Over the past two years, China's foreign policy has become more belligerent. But Washington should not wish for a weaker Beijing.

Realist international relations theorists usually would predict that the basic pressures of the international system will force the United States and China into conflict.

All previous attempts at total nuclear disarmament have failed, as strategic logic and state interest have prevailed over wishful thinking. A similar fate awaits Global Zero, the newest disarmament movement, for similar reasons.

Washington's approach to rebuilding economies devastated by conflicts and natural disasters is flawed.

In deciding whether to impose preconditions before negotiating with an enemy, governments should make sure two criteria are satisfied.

As Washington ponders how long to stay in Iraq, it would do well to remember the limited impact of the United States' withdrawal from Vietnam and Cambodia in the 1970s, Lebanon in the 1980s, and Somalia in the 1990s.

The future of the Arab world will depend on the outcome of a battle between those advocating Islamic theocracy and those seeking to establish liberal democracy.

The situation in Iraq is improving. With the right strategy, the United States will eventually be able to draw down troops without sacrificing stability.

The international community must ensure that people seeking saftey are protected; soverignty is not a shield behind which authoritarian governments may terrorize their own people.

Because borders are becoming ever more porous and contingent, everyone has an interest in humanitarian intervention.

The Bush administration wants to contain Iran by rallying the support of Sunni Arab states and now sees Iran's containment as the heart of its Middle East policy: a way to stabilize Iraq, declaw Hezbollah, and restart the Arab-Israeli peace process. But the strategy is unsound and impractical, and it will probably further destabilize an already volatile region.

Over the past decade, Burma has gone from being an antidemocratic embarrassment and humanitarian disaster to being a serious threat to its neighbors' security. The international community must change its approach to the country's junta.

In the past decade, 12,000 Nepalis have died in an increasingly brutal civil war that pits a backward-looking monarchy and an abusive military against fanatical Maoist rebels. To help solve the crisis, the rest of the world must convince both sides that there is a third way.

Past attempts to fix failed states in Africa have gone nowhere for similar reasons: they have tried to restore good governance to places that have never enjoyed it in the first place. A radical rethinking is needed; in the hardest cases, international trusteeships offer the best chance for success.