A new arms control agreement with Russia has met political opposition in the U.S. Senate, and some analysts believe its fate is tied to the outcome of the 2010 midterm elections. This Backgrounder ex…

China has grown into a trading giant, but recent concerns over the safety of Chinese food and drugs have increased worries that China’s production may have outpaced the country’s policing capacity.

Nationalism in China, surging amid protests over Beijing’s rule in Tibet, increasingly fills the role Maoism played before China embraced capitalism.

The division of Iraq’s oil wealth is an important obstacle to a power-sharing deal. At issue is whether revenues should be regionally or centrally controlled.

The United States launched the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) in 2003 to help curb the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Since then, PSI membership has expanded sevenfold, …