The UN’s latest bid to negotiate a political transition in Syria is unlikely to yield results. Behind its mediators’ failures lie a wider breakdown of great-power politics, says expert Richard Gowan.

Syria’s U.S. ambassador says Damascus can play a "constructive role" in resolving the current fighting in Lebanon but is getting the diplomatic cold shoulder from the Bush administration.

CFR Adjunct Fellow Noah Feldman, discussing the legal issues at stake in the upcoming Hamdan decision, says the case will decide whether military tribunals are constitutionally sufficient and warns t…

"Engagement doesn’t preclude criticism," says Iranian historian Ali M. Ansari, so the West should be more forthright in speaking out against Iran’s human rights record.

Today’s ’Day of Rage’ in Saudi Arabia fizzled, but the Saudis are tense about protests in the neighboring monarchy of Bahrain and U.S. support for the recent revolutionary wave in the Middle East, sa…