In this book, CFR Adjunct Senior Fellow Noah Feldman provides a sweeping history of the traditional Islamic constitution—its noble beginnings, its downfall, and the renewed promise it could hold for Muslims and Westerners alike. Teaching notes by the author.

The Supreme Court should skip the semantics of Obama's mandatory health care reform, argues Noah Feldman. Economically, health insurance is a classic example of market failure, he writes.

Noah Feldman says the Obama administration faces both old and new legal challenges over U.S. defense strategies.

Noah Feldman explains why the draw-down of troops in Iraq is a beginning and not an end.

Noah Feldman argues, "many of the greatest [Supreme Court] justices have been irascible, socially distant, personally isolated, arrogant, or even downright mean."

Noah Feldman asks, "Has the Obama administration changed the legal rules for detaining suspects in the war on terrorism, or is it continuing in the footsteps of the Bush administration?"

Noah Feldman discusses the need for a balance between secrecy and transparency in the U.S. government. He explains, "The effective operation of even the most democratic government requires secrecy and surprise as well as transparency and predictability."

Noah Feldman writes that "the time for change is now, lest Afghanistan become the quagmire that Iraq was once said to be."

Noah Feldman, CFR adjunct senior fellow and Harvard constitutional law expert, says two landmark Supreme Court rulings send conflicting messages to the world about U.S. adherence to international law.

Noah Feldman writes that "it is becoming increasingly clear that the defining constitutional problem for the present generation will be the nature of the relationship of the United States to what is somewhat optimistically called the international order."

Noah Feldman writes that "paradoxically...saber rattling against Iran may help achieve political resolution."

Some degree of anti-immigrant sentiment can usually be found all over the world; but in Western Europe this sentiment is turning into something much more dangerous, says Noah Feldman.

Listen to Noah Feldman, adjunct senior fellow at CFR and professor of law at Harvard Law School, discuss his new book, The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, as part of CFR's Religion and Foreign Policy Conference Call Series.

Learn more about CFR's Religion and Foreign Policy Initiative.

Noah Feldman discusses what crackdowns and elections in Iraq never quite achieve.

Listen to experts discuss the role of religion with regard to the state.

Experts discuss trends in religion and foreign policy.

Millions of Muslims think Shariah means the rule of law. Noah Feldman examines whether they could be right.

Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.