Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says a battle is on to keep Afghan women from falling off the political agenda while Washington and its NATO allies seek a diplomatic solution to America's longest-ever war, and the fight becomes more urgent as the NATO summit in Chicago approaches.

Max Boot argues that the only way the Taliban can shoot their way back into power is if the United States abandons Afghanistan.

Leslie H. Gelb says military confrontations loom for President Obama in Iran, Syria, and North Korea, and he can't head them off with the usual duet of threats and talks.

Micah Zenko says it's time for the United States to think of new ways to combat terrorism in Southwest Asia.

Leslie H. Gelb says President Obama will wait until after the election to speed up U.S. troop withdrawals from Afghanistan.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argues that any peace agreement in Afghanistan that leaves out Afghan women will simply be a short-term deal, not a durable peace.

Max Boot says military action in Syria needs to be carefully thought through, but the Obama administration should not allow itself to be paralyzed by the Pentagon's reluctance to intervene in Syria.

Leslie H. Gelb says foreign policy experts should be made to answer questions about the consequences and risks of their recommendations to engage the United States in wars with Syria and Iran.

Jonathan Tepperman says a decision by the United States to intervene militarily in Syria must be made with hard facts and an honest decision about what standing up for U.S. interests and values will entail.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says that while Afghan women deplore the burning of the Quran by U.S. troops, they are even angrier at the bloody protests that followed.

Max Boot argues that despite the recent protests over the burning of Qurans, Afghans do not want a return of the Taliban--and they don't hate America.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses the current situtation in Afghanistan, where more Afghans are seeking asylum now than at any time since war in Afghanistan began.

This session was a meeting of the Women and Foreign Policy Roundtable Series, organized by the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative.

Francis Fukuyama shot to fame with a 1989 essay called "The End of History?" which he expanded into a 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man. His thesis was a reworking of the "end of ideology" argument propounded in the 1950s by Daniel Bell and others, with an even more emphatic twist.

Max Boot says cutting spending on Afghan forces is penny wise and war foolish.

Last August, the Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney performed what has become a quadrennial rite of passage in American presidential politics: he delivered a speech to the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Nine years after U.S. troops toppled Saddam Hussein and just a few months after the last U.S. soldier left Iraq, the country has become something close to a failed state.

The United States, facing deepening economic and fiscal woes at home, is preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Elliott Abrams argues that President Obama's recent State of the Union address settled the matter on the existence of an Obama Doctrine.

Leslie H. Gelb says the Obama administration's announcement of a quick end to U.S. combat in Afghanistan is a surprise decision of strategic skill and political courage.