The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its yearly Budget and Economic Outlook report on "'baseline' budget projections spanning the next 10 years. Those projections are not a forecast of future events; rather, they are intended to provide a benchmark against which potential policy changes can be measured." The report covers 2013-2023.

Some experts believe al-Shabaab is at its weakest point in years following an African-led counterinsurgency campaign, but others warn of the group's resiliency in an unstable Somalia.

In a review of Al Gore's The Future, Jagdish N. Bhagwati says the former vice president mispredicts our future by misunderstanding our present.

The Syrian opposition has realized that Assad likely cannot be toppled militarily, but must be pushed out through a negotiated solution, says CFR's Ed Husain.

The BCA established an automatic process to reduce spending, partially entailing a sequester of budgetary resources, if Congress did not pass and the President did not sign, by January 15, 2012, legislation reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the FY2012-FY2021 period. No such legislation was enacted by the deadline. Therefore, the automatic spending reduction process was triggered.

Al-Qaeda's affiliates "provide new justification for the Obama administration's efforts to turn elements of its counterterrorism policies, including kill lists and drone bases, into fixtures for a fight expected to last another decade or more."

Vice President Joe Biden presented these remarks at the Munich Security Conference on February 2, 2013. He discussed developments in American foreign policy and international security over the last four years, regarding Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear program, the global financial crisis, counterterrorism, and the relationship between the United States and Russia.

Throughout Chuck Hagel's marathon confirmation hearing, America's decade-long war in Afghanistan was noticeably overlooked. But it is curious to see the next secretary of defense receive so few inquiries from senators about the war whose end he will presumably oversee in the coming years, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

In her farewell address, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discusses American leadership.

Adam Segal says the recent Chinese cyberattacks on Bloomberg and the New York Times highlights both the willingness of Beijing to shape the narrative about China, as well as the vulnerability the top leadership feels about how they are portrayed.

Could Ohio, New York or Pennsylvania be the next North Dakota and "frack" its way to budget surpluses?

Its economy is in terrible condition and state authority is apparently breaking down. It's time to contemplate an intervention by Egypt's military, says CFR's Steven Cook.

"Last September's terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi left the unmistakable impression of a country teetering on a knife-edge. Yet despite its struggles, Libya is hardly on the brink of anarchy."

Despite changes in both U.S. and Cuban leadership since early 2008, experts do not anticipate any normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations in the near to medium term.

Benn Steil's Wall Street Journal Europe op-ed, co-authored with Dinah Walker, argues that the Bank of England is getting "Libored"—that is, misled and manipulated—by the banks benefiting from its Funding for Lending Scheme. The Fed, which has shown interest in the scheme, should beware.

Jihadists were already finding it hard to operate in North Africa before the Arab Spring of 2011. Since then their problems have become almost insurmountable: they thrive only in countries where Islamists are in prison, not where they are in the ascendant or contesting elections. As for Europe, the last attacks instigated by al-Qaida date back to Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005. Jihadism looks less like a rising phenomenon in the north of Mali than a force in retreat. The French intervention may well give them purpose and greater coherence.

"Homegrown violent jihadist activity since 9/11 defies easy categorization. No workable general profile of domestic violent jihadists exists."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will seek to form a big-tent coalition that could signal a new inward focus at a time of increasing tumult in the Mideast, says expert David Makovsky.

Julia E. Sweig argues that the post-Castro era was ushered in by Raul Castro's implementation of new reforms on the island.

Because a financial crisis can inflict lasting damage to productivity growth, Peter Orszag argues that the failure of U.S. policymakers to enact a "barbell" fiscal policy now could yield more economic troubles down the road.