Reza Aslan says, "It has always been extremely easy to inject God into political conflicts... But if we are to find an equitable end to such intractable conflicts as the one between Israel and Palestine, we must learn to actively strip them of their religious connotations. Otherwise, we will never stop fighting them."

Vivek Maru and Michael Woolcock evaluate efforts of nonprofits and global development institutions to help all people exercise their rights, increase government accountability, and participate in governance.

Vivek Maru and Michael Woolcock evaluate efforts of nonprofits and global development institutions to help all people exercise their rights, increase government accountability, and participate in governance.

The female veterans who filed the lawsuit say combat exclusion is unfair and outdated, based on stereotypes, inhibits recognition and promotion of servicewomen—and ignores the realities of the modern battlefield, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

With money playing an ever more important role in politics, institutions of higher education need to lead the charge for greater accountability in corporate political spending, says Terra Lawson-Remer.

On-The-Record Film Screening of "The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby."

In the wake of the Petraeus scandal, Julia E. Sweig says her heroine of the moment is Carrie Mathison, heroine of the TV show Homeland who works in a profession where mainly men write the rules of the game.

University endowments ought to be invested in corporations that promote their institutions' mission, argues Terra Lawson-Remer. But for that happen, the Securities and Exchange Commission will first have to require public corporations to disclose their campaign spending activities.

In a conversation sponsored by CFR and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, experts Ed Husain, Katrina Lantos Swett, and Monica Duffy Toft, examine the role that religion plays in shaping foreign policy.

Ed Husain says Europe needs to foster a greater sense of multiculturalism. In the United States, immigrants are accepted; in most of Europe, they are just tolerated.

Steven A. Cook says leadership in the Middle East is up for grabs as the Syrian war intensifies, the Arab Spring changes regional power dynamics, and Israel's airstrikes and Hamas rockets again roil Gaza. Last year, Turkey was the assumed role model for the region. But it has fallen down on the job.

Joshua Kurlantzick, CFR's fellow for Southeast Asia, leads a conversation on the conflict between Thailand's growing Muslim insurgency and majority Buddhist security forces.

Bibi Aisha's gruesome maiming put her on the cover of Time. Now, years later, she's working on getting a new face and trying to exorcise the horror, restart her life—and reunite with family, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

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

Today, 214,098 women serve in the U.S. military, representing 14.6 percent of total service members.

For all the differences between Democrats and Republicans that were laid bare during the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign, the parties' standard-bearers, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, do seem to have agreed on one thing: the importance of equal opportunity.

With its commandments and parables, its kings and its prophets, the Hebrew Bible has served as a reference point for Western politics for centuries. Almost every kind of political movement, it seems, has drawn its own message from the text.

CFR fellow Isobel Coleman speaks with two women leaders, Marianne Ibrahim from Egypt and Souad Slaoui from Morocco, as they discuss initiatives in their home countries to empower women and girls, improve inter-faith dialogues, and encourage positive policy changes that support human rights and international development.

Education must become a central focus to ensure a stable and prosperous U.S. in the future, write Margaret Spellings and Joel Klein. Klein lead the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on U.S. Education Reform and National Security.

Alexandra Starr, Emerson fellow at the New America Foundation, discusses the findings and policy recommendations of her CFR Working Paper on the economic potential of Latino immigrant entrepreneurs.