Ray Takeyh writes about Iran's upcoming election.

Steven Cook inspects the role of Islam in Egyptian, Turkish, and Tunisian society and culture.

Ray Takeyh examines examples of foreign policy failures turned success, including "the shift in U.S. containment policy during the early stages of the Truman presidency; the changed U.S. approach to the Vietnam War after Richard Nixon's 1968 election; and George W. Bush's surge in Iraq."

Ray Takeyh warns that the West is falling into a diplomacy trap set by Iranian clerics regarding the nuclear Non-Prolifieration Treaty (NPT).

Ray Takeyh calls for "a more imaginative re-conceptualization of the existing diplomatic paradigm," between the United States and Iran.

A take-it-or-leave-it deal by the United States on the nuclear issue is the wrong strategy, says Ray Takeyh.

In the nuclear dispute between Iran and the United States, a grand bargain is unlikely given the level of mistrust between the two parties. What's more realistic is a modest compromise that breaches the wall of mistrust and potentially sets the stage for further-reaching arms control measures, says Ray Takeyh.

Steven A. Cook says, "This is a critical moment in Egypt's transition; Morsi and his colleagues would do well to recognize that, rescind the decrees, and commit themselves to the democratic process. At this point, it is the only way for the Brothers to burnish their revolutionary credentials."

Thanks to the rift between Turkey and Israel, Ankara's days as a power broker in the Arab-Israeli conflict are over, says Steven A. Cook.

Steven A. Cook says Gaza's radiating instability proves once again that Palestine is at the center of the region's problems.

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.

Ray Takeyh argues that if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wants to ensure the Islamic republic's revolutionary precepts survive him, China is a model to avoid.

Ray Takeyh argues, "The United States will make genuine progress with Iran only when moderate leaders assume greater control of the state. An interim accord may provide time, but that time must be used to broaden the contours of Iran's political system."

Steven A. Cook says the news may look grim, but the United States is poised to remain the dominant power in the Middle East.

Examining the decline of violence in Iraq at the end of 2007, Stephen Biddle, Jeffrey A. Friedman, and Jacob Shapiro argue, "A synergistic interaction between the surge and the [Sunni] Awakening was required for violence to drop as quickly and widely as it did: both were necessary; neither was sufficient."

Steven A. Cook says Mohamed Morsi's victory in Egypt's presidential election puts Islamists in control an office that was once the exclusive province of the military, but asks whether Sunday's Tahrir Square celebration was premature.

Ray Takeyh argues that Saudi Arabia may seem to be an island of stability in a tumultuous region, but it has problems that must not be ignored.

Steven A. Cook says that regardless of whether the June 17 decree by Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was in fact a military coup, precedent in Turkey in Algeria shows that officers' interests are safeguarded, and society as a whole will pay.

Steven A. Cook says that as Hosni Mubarak lies on his deathbed, he leaves behind a broken Egypt.

Stephen Biddle, Jeffrey A. Friedman, and Jacob N. Shapiro examine the reasons for the reversal in 2007 from years of intense bloodshed in Iraq to almost four years of relative calm since then.