The government of Nouri al-Maliki faces a number of challenges in the coming year, including strong opposition from Sunnis, Kurds, and fellow Shiites, says CFR’s Meghan O’Sullivan.

The latest round of UN and U.S. sanctions on Iran are unlikely to push Iran to negotiations, says sanctions expert Meghan O’Sullivan, which means the U.S. and its allies will need to look at options …

The close, completed counts in Iraq’s elections mean that it will take months of coalition-building, and Sunni-Shiite political tensions, before it’s clear who will head the new government, says CFR …

Anthony H. Cordesman, a leading strategic analyst of the Iraqi war, says the Bush administration’s latest strategy on Iraq makes victory there “possible” but “the problem is it also isn’t probable.”

Anthony H. Cordesman, a leading expert on intelligence, says President Bush wisely declined to embrace all of the 9/11 Commission’s proposals for intelligence reform. Bush’s call for a new director o…