Ray Takeyh, the CFR’s top Iranian expert, says the latest spurt of diplomacy will lead to a discussion in the UN Security Council and more diplomacy, but he doubts that the Security Council will take…

Rachel Bronson, who heads CFR’s Middle East and Gulf Studies program, says the Bush administration’s expectations that as a Middle East country “democratizes” it would move away from terrorism seem t…

Youssef Ibrahim, managing director of Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group, and a former Middle East correspondent for the New York Times, says the pending deal for Dubai Ports World to admi…

John M. Walsh of the Washington Office on Latin America says the failure of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s major reform proposals at the polls was a surprise, and represents a “heavy defeat.”

Veteran New York Times correspondent John F. Burns discusses the declining security situation in Afghanistan and what he says are the dim prospects for fruitful peace talks between the Taliban and Ka…