Iraq’s first permanent government faces a host of challenges in the months ahead, from fighting corruption to supplying water and electricity to amending Iraq’s constitution.

Iraq’s failing economy helps feed the cycle of violence there. Beyond restoring security, however, experts disagree over how to resuscitate it.

Russia’s hosting of the G8 summit in St. Petersburg was meant to symbolize the country’s integration into the club of the world’s richest industrialized democracies. But with Russia moving in an incr…