March 12, 2019
United KingdomThe Good Friday Agreement has dampened sectarian tensions and brought stability to Northern Ireland since 1998, but Brexit negotiations and local political paralysis are throwing the region’s hard-wo…
January 27, 2005
IraqThis publication is now archived. Who is the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani?He is the most important Shiite cleric in Iraq, where the population is about 60 percent Shiite. The reclusive, Iranian-bor…
June 20, 2019
Monetary PolicyThe role of the Federal Reserve has transformed in the past decade, as it has deployed trillions of dollars to boost the U.S. economy while expanding its regulatory oversight of the nation’s financia…
October 1, 2018
TradePresident Trump has reached a deal with Canada and Mexico to restructure the North American Free Trade Agreement, hoping a new trilateral accord will reinvigorate the U.S. manufacturing sector.
May 6, 2019
Defense and SecurityConceived as the principal defenders of the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has evolved into an institution with vast political, economic, and military power.
December 7, 2018
Saudi ArabiaRelations between the two countries, long bound by common interests in oil and security, have strained over what some analysts see as a more assertive Saudi foreign policy.
August 8, 2018
NigeriaBoko Haram, known for mass kidnappings, bombings, and other acts of terrorism, remains an enduring threat to northern Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin.
July 17, 2018
Nuclear WeaponsNearly all nuclear weapon states, as a matter of policy, remain ready to use their weapons without having first suffered a nuclear attack.
September 30, 2014
Energy and Climate PolicyCalls for lifting U.S. controls on energy exports are mounting as production nears a forty-five-year high.