President Obama says "systemic failures" contributed to the Christmas Day airliner plot, but CFR’s Steven Simon says given the huge volume of intelligence analyzed daily, reforms won’t come easily.

Will Kim Jong-il’s twenty-seven-year-old son assume power in a smooth transition or is a destabilizing succession struggle ahead for reclusive North Korea? CFR’s Scott Snyder says the next few weeks …

Sheila A. Smith, a CFR adjunct senior fellow who lives in Tokyo, says Yasuo Fukuda, the new Japanese prime minister, is likely to be a moderate force in Japanese politics.

Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew leaves behind a remarkable record of economic transformation, but the city-state faces a series of tests on the horizon, says CFR’s Karen Brooks.

Youssef Ibrahim, managing director of Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group, and a former Middle East correspondent for the New York Times, says the pending deal for Dubai Ports World to admi…