UN-mediated talks in Syria are jeopardized by disagreement over which opposition parties should participate, but a broader obstacle is whether a compromise over Bashar al-Assad’s future can be reache…

Pope Francis will use his upcoming high-level visits to the U.S. and UN to press the concerns of the poor and marginalized, says expert Kenneth Himes.

Germany’s insistence upon Greek reform is not about inflicting humiliation or exacting revenge, but rather making the country economically viable in the long term, says expert Ulrich Speck.

The pope’s encyclical on the environment carries a profoundly religious message about care for the earth, wedded to a new call for activism, say religious scholars Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.

A refugee crisis in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region is intensifying as winter approaches and the threat posed by ISIS forces shows no signs of abating, says journalist Jane Arraf.