A UN tribunal’s ruling upholds the need for a rules-based order that counters China’s efforts to turn the South China Sea region into a sphere of influence, says expert Andrew Erickson.

Tighter Western sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine may be necessary but could bring unwelcome consequences, explains CFR’s John Bellinger.

The vote by some Crimean citizens to join Russia violates Ukrainian and international law and could come back to haunt Moscow, its primary backer, says CFR’s John Bellinger.

A senior economic adviser to Sen. John McCain calls free trade an essential element in reviving U.S. economic fortunes.

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.