China's current 18th Party Congress that ended this week may prove even more important that America's just-fought election, whose outcome was perfectly predictable.

On Thursday, China's new supreme leader is expected to be named in Beijing's Great Hall of the People. Almost everyone expects top Communist Party secretary Xi...

HAVANA -- The black, sinister-looking Soviet SS-4 intermediate-ranged missile on display at Havana's La Cabana fortress looked old, roughly finished, and rather primitive.

But this missile, and 41 others (including some longer-ranged SS-5's) terrified the United States during the October 1962 missile crisis -- 13 days that shook the...

Two major events in China are sure to shape the world's newest superpower: the sensational murder trial of Madame Gu Kailai, and the top secret leadership conclave at the seaside resort of Beidaihe.

Madame Gu, as widely reported, was charged with poisoning Neil Heywood, a British businessman, fixer and possibly...

America's most vital national security concern is to maintain calm, productive relations with Russia.

The reason is obvious: Russia and the United States have thousands of nuclear warheads targeted on each other. Many are ready to launch in minutes. Compared to this threat, all of America's other...

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the major portion of US naval power will shift to the Pacific by 2020 as part of the Pentagon's new "pivot to Asia" strategy. Though not totally unexpected, this news has caused quite a stir across Asia and raised tempers in China.

The second, decisive round of Egypt's presidential election will be held June 16 and 17. If former general and Mubarak regime stalwart Ahmad Shafiq somehow wins, it's almost certain the vote was manipulated.

A huge popular explosion in Egypt will very likely ensue. Egyptians are already furious...

This weekend's G8 summit at Camp David, Maryland, will be unlikely to find a real solution to Greece's mounting problems.

The last time Greece faced a crisis of this magnitude was in 490 BC when the armies and fleets of the Persian Empire were converging on Athens.

The...

"Après moi, le déluge!" - After me, the deluge. So said French king Louis XV, and was he ever right. His successor faced the French Revolution and lost his head.

Much the same can be said of France's outgoing president, Nicholas Sarkozy. The victory of his Socialist rival François Hollande...

India just launched what the media called its "first intercontinental ballistic missile." India did indeed launch a new, 5,000 km-range Agni-V missile that can deliver a nuclear warhead to Beijing and Shanghai.

Previously, India's 3,500-km Agni-III did not have the range to hit China's major coastal cities....

A Frenchmen who called himself "Lucky Pierre" opened a restaurant many years ago on New York's West 55th Street. He claimed to have dived under an ammunition truck during the war that blew up shortly after -- and survived unscathed. Alas, his restaurant did not last very long.

Enter another...

Writing about films is not something I often do, but as an old Cold Warrior who has covered intelligence matters for decades and been involved in a few, the thrilling book Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is right up my dark alley.

John Le Carré's Cold War espionage trilogy, which also...

Egypt is celebrating the first anniversary of its historic revolution that overthrew the 30-year Mubarak dictatorship.

By contrast, the reaction of the United States, the world's most vociferous proponent of democracy, to this important event and to the convening of Egypt's first democratically-elected parliament has been muted, to say...

The North Koreans may be low on food, but they certainly know how to throw a funeral.

I stayed up until 2 am watching last week's mammoth funeral of the "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il, live on TV from North Korea's eerie, snowy capitol, Pyongyang. Giant floats and goose-stepping...

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In 1988, I saw the surest sign the USSR was facing an earthquake when I became the first western journalist to be invited into KGB's Moscow headquarters, the Lubyanka Prison.

Moscovites were so terrified of...

The death this weekend of North Korea's 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong Il presents many dangers, but also some hopes for lower tensions on the strategic peninsula.

Kim's death was not unexpected. He had been seriously ill with diabetes and cardiac problems that led to a stroke in 2008. His youngest...

CAIRO - Tahrir Square, epicenter of the earthquake that ousted Egypt's western-backed dictator, Hosni Mubarak, is quiet -- for the moment.

Banner-wavers, speakers, and scruffy youngsters mill about. But the by now world-famous square has a forlorn, leftover look, with more street people than revolutionaries. But violence still crackles...

Standing at Tahrir Square, ground zero of Egypt's revolution, is exciting and intimidating. The explosive anger, pent-up frustrations, and yearning for revenge of tens of thousands of demonstrators and onlookers breaks like waves across this vast, unsightly plaza.

This is the raw material of all revolutions. The whiff of near-toxic...

ISTANBUL - It's dark and foggy here today along the mighty Bosphorus that separates Europe and Asia. Just as murky and dangerous as exploding-next-door Syria.

Turkey's formerly very successful "no problems" foreign policy crafted by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutogolu buried old arguments with Syria, Iran, and Lebanon and opened billions...

I've a lovely little painting in my study of Germany's first modern emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm I.

It was painted soon after the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War that led to the creation of a united Germany with Prussia's King Wilhelm as its monarch -- thanks to the great German statesman, Prince...

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency's(IAEA) long awaited, much ballyhooed report on Iran's nuclear activities has been thunderously greeted in North America as conclusive evidence that Iran is working on nuclear weapons.

Tehran has long denied such claims. So, more tellingly, did a 2007 US combined intelligence...