King Abdullah’s succession plan for Saudi Arabia’s aging leadership may be his most important legacy at a time of multiple crises in the Middle East, says expert Rachel Bronson.

Can Washington and Islamabad build a new strategic relationship? CFR’s Daniel Markey says John Kerry and Nawaz Sharif are off to a friendly start, but big obstacles remain on counterterror cooperatio…

The eurozone and Saudi Arabia are elevated threats in 2012 under CFR’s new Preventive Priorities Survey, while Afghanistan and Sudan are reduced. CFR’s Micah Zenko discusses.

The coalition led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is likely to lead in the March 7 parliamentary elections, as Iraqis look for stability and security after years of conflict, says Nir Rosen, an ana…

Thomas W. Lippman, a specialist on Persian Gulf security, says U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s warning about a U.S. "defense umbrella" to protect regional states from any Iranian nuclear ar…

Vali R. Nasr, a leading expert on Shiites, says the fighting in southern Iraq amounts to a power struggle between pro and anti-U.S. Shiite militias. The country’s Shiite prime minister, he says, is “…

Anthony H. Cordesman, a leading expert on military and security developments in Iraq and Afghanistan, says that despite some gains, the situation in both countries remains tenuous.

Daniel Markey, a former State Department specialist on South Asia, says Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency decree runs the risk of alienating so many different opposition groups that a …

Rachel Bronson, CFR’s top Middle East expert and author of a new book on Saudi-American relations, Thicker Than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership With Saudi Arabia, says that she does not expect Saud…

The future of Iraq depends as much on melding the many differences between its Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish groups as on integrating its smaller ethnic and religious communities. Among its largest mino…