Libya’s UN-brokered unity agreement is fragile at best and could fracture in the event of a stepped-up Western intervention against Islamic State forces, says expert Mary Fitzgerald.

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.

China’s leaders have made a renewed call for rule of law reforms, but it is important to stress the ruling Communist Party remains above the law, says CFR’s Elizabeth C. Economy.

Post-Qaddafi Libya is riven along regional, economic, and religious lines, and may descend into civil war despite a recent flurry of international diplomacy, says journalist Mary Fitzgerald.

New Chinese territorial claims over the East China Sea have alarmed trade partners and neighbors, but no major disruption in the region’s booming commerce is expected, says CFR’s Thomas Bollyky.