W. Patrick Lang, former head of Middle East Affairs and Counterterrorism at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, tells cfr.org the attack on the Askariya Shrine will not scuttle Iraq’s political pro…

Syria’s unrest isn’t widespread enough to lead to a government ouster, with the Assad regime enjoying solid support from the country’s Alawite leadership and Sunni majority, says expert Joshua Landis.

Hossein Bastani, an Iranian journalist, discusses the split within Iran between the so-called neoconservatives, who support Ahmadinejad, and the more traditional conservatives, who support the older …

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…

Bernard E. Trainor, a retired three-star U.S. Marine Corps general, says that Iraq’s future may hinge on the battle for Najaf. “The issue is still in doubt as to whether the outcome is going to be be…