Richard N. Haass contrasts the decisions that shaped the conduct of two wars between the United States and Iraq, and writes an authoritative, personal account of how U.S. foreign policy is made, what it should seek, and how it should be pursued.

Since 9/11, many have observed that global security depends upon improving conditions for the world's poor. But how to make that happen? No institution has grappled harder with this challenge than th…

Read an excerpt of The Ideas That Conquered the World. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, three ideas dominate the world: peace as the preferred basis for relations between countries, democr…

Most politicians, policy-makers, and analysts hailed the Kyoto Protocol as a vital first step toward slowing greenhouse warming. Council Senior Fellow David Victor was not among them. In this clear a…

Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration's struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.