A grand bargain over Syria’s reconstruction and transition may become possible at some point in the future; for now, the reconstruction debate sounds like wishful thinking, analyst Roula Khalaf writes… Read more »
United States Treasury sanctions have now brought international scrutiny on Venezuela’s vice-president Tareck El Aissami, reportedly involved in narcotics rackets from Colombia to Mexico, who went from being an unknown… Read more »
Al Qaeda and the Islamic State could reconcile their differences to present a different but persistent security challenge to the United States for the foreseeable future, experts in counterterrorism told… Read more »
What happens when the population turns against the populists? Just such a drama is playing out in Romania, a country of 20 million people where hundreds of thousands have poured… Read more »
The prospects for the removal of Syria’s Assad regime and a near-term transition to a “moderate opposition” are poorer than ever, according to a new RAND report. But there is… Read more »
Ukraine’s leaders may be giving up on reuniting the country, The Economist reports: Most Ukrainians say the war in Donbas, as the region is known, is the country’s most important… Read more »
A few hours before Vladimir Putin gave his 2014 new year’s speech, a shadowy group calling itself Shaltai Boltai — the Russian for Humpty Dumpty, the nursery rhyme character —… Read more »
Perhaps because they are often poorly run, hotlines do not seem to be making local governments any more popular. These form the most despised tier of authority in China: many… Read more »
Is there any other country in Europe where the No. 2 politician (head of the Senate) and the No 3 politician (head of the Chamber of Deputies), who have just… Read more »
“We are at an interesting moment in modern history,” according to Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States. “There appears to be a growing appetite for populist politics… Read more »
