Despite North Korea’s defiance of international censure and sanctions, revived diplomacy is the best path to curb its nuclear program, says CFR’s Amy J. Nelson.

Pope Francis will use his upcoming high-level visits to the U.S. and UN to press the concerns of the poor and marginalized, says expert Kenneth Himes.

The pope’s encyclical on the environment carries a profoundly religious message about care for the earth, wedded to a new call for activism, say religious scholars Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.

President Hollande’s state visit was an attempted boost for the United States’ lead EU security partner and a sign of a more activist foreign policy in the White House, says CFR’s Charles Kupchan.

The search for evidence of chemical weapons in Syria is painstaking and hampered by harsh conditions, but could yield decisive findings as debate over military action intensifies, says expert Amy E. …