President-elect Barack Obama assembles his national security team at a time when responsibility for foreign policymaking has shifted increasingly to the White House, says Carnegie Endowment scholar D…

Ronald D. Asmus, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs in the Clinton administration and an expert on NATO, says that an “important first step” toward healing t…

Richard K. Betts, a CFR expert on the intelligence community, says that he sees no reason that the nomination of General Michael V. Hayden to head the Central Intelligence Agency should be blocked by…

Retired Marine Lieut. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor, who has coauthored a book on the planning for the Iraq war, says that departing Secretary of Defense Donald M. Rumsfeld will probably leave a “negative …

Joshua M. Landis, a Syria expert who recently returned to the United States from Damascus, says that Syrian leaders are seeking to establish good relations with Iraq. He says the new prime minister o…