Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad says the Obama administration must determine how to use its leverage to help shape a competent government in Kabul.

Today’s ’Day of Rage’ in Saudi Arabia fizzled, but the Saudis are tense about protests in the neighboring monarchy of Bahrain and U.S. support for the recent revolutionary wave in the Middle East, sa…

CFR’s Kim Barker, on return from a recent trip to Kabul, says Afghans are disillusioned with both the reelection of President Hamid Karzai and what they perceive as the U.S desire for an exit strateg…

The ouster of autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt has awakened a hunger for change in the Arab world, says CFR’s Thomas W. Lippman, but it’s unlikely to result in a widespread fall of regimes.

Lebanon faces new sectarian violence, and tensions along its border with Israel threaten to boil over. CFR’s Mohamad Bazzi says to help avert conflict, Washington must eventually engage with the most…