Successive U.S. administrations have sought to justify controversial domestic surveillance programs amid criticism from Congress and rights activists, explains this Backgrounder.

As the United States and India move toward cementing their warmest relationship ever, India’s rival, Pakistan, is broadening its ties with its own powerful ally: China.

Experts say the United States, overstretched militarily and diplomatically in the Middle East, needs to refocus its Asia-Pacific strategy to reverse a slide in its influence over the region.

Chinese leaders face the dilemma of continuing their country’s staggering economic growth while spreading its benefits to the hundreds of millions of rural poor. Beijing hopes its "peaceful rise" pol…

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