As pressures mount in Washington for a more aggressive American involvement on behalf of at least some rebel groups in Syria, President Obama has seemed intent on proving the Nobel committee was farsighted in awarding him its peace prize four years ago.

He sent Secretary of State John Kerry...

Last week, with scarcely a ripple in the public consciousness, a new initiative was quietly launched that could profoundly alter the world's international security landscape for decades ahead.

Before recessing for the Christian holy days, the United Nations Security Council approved, 15-0, a resolution to attach a combat-ready "Intervention Brigade"...

"It's complicated," defense secretary Chuck Hagel repeatedly murmured during his three-day visit to Afghanistan this past weekend for a ground's eye assessment as he prepares to manage the phase-out of American military forces.

Complicated it was. For his host, Afghan president Hamid Karzai, upended all of Washington's ingrained assumptions...

Though February is definitely low season for travel to Moscow, there's a notable uptick in Syrian travelers there now. Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Mouallem is due this weekend, and Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, president of the opposition umbrella group Syrian National Coalition, is expected there later in the week.

At a...

Senate Republicans presumably hope that the 10-day delay they have forced on a vote to confirm their former colleague, Chuck Hagel, as secretary of defense may serve to ratchet up pressure on him regarding a cause dear to many in their party caucus: nuclear weapons.

Much has been made of...

This week's announced willingness by the chairman of the rebel Syrian National Coalition to negotiate Syria's political transition with officials of the current government was the first hopeful sign that the country's deadly two-year civil war may yet be brought to an end.

Yet the Israeli air strike the...

On Monday I cast my ballot as a presidential elector. With a minimum of pageantry, 14 staunch Democrats gathered in New Jersey's 18th century State House to perform the ministerial function of ratifying the people's choice of Barack Obama as president, in conformity with the provisions of our...

Afghan president Hamid Karzai's order to his forces to wrest control of Bagram prison from the United States highlights Afghans' growing testiness. It comes just as talks begin with their American allies on new security arrangements to govern a continued U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after 2014. Those...

In his victory address on election night, Barack Obama broke a year-long silence on climate change to warn of "the destructive power of a warming planet." We are headed back to the United Nations negotiating table.

Hours later, the president's delegates in the U.N.'s disarmament committee voted to launch a...

There was passing press notice of a Democratic colleague's defeat last week of Howard Berman, the much-respected Californian who formerly chaired the House foreign affairs committee. But while Democrats on the committee vie for his current slot as ranking minority member, a more consequential struggle is going on behind closed...

Today's 'Id al-Adha holiday--the "festival of the sacrifice"-- is perhaps the most dangerous day in the Muslim world to be a lamb. The Chinese translate it as "festival of livestock slaughter," and it is observed with ritual feasts on freshly slaughtered meat.

In Syria, where it is people who have...

The New York Times shattered America's elite foreign policy consensus about an Afghan "war of necessity" Sunday, declaring that "it is time for United States forces to leave Afghanistan" -- now, not in 2014. No longer is it just a war-weary public that has given up on the...

The sun had long set Monday night when the last speakers in the opening debate of the U.N. General Assembly, from Venezuela and Dominica, wearily trudged to the podium to contribute their countries' perspectives on the priorities for global action at the United Nations this fall.

The assembly hall...

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in New York for this fall's session of the United Nations General Assembly--his last hurrah at the world body before his presidency ends next summer. He clearly is not in a mellow mood.

In a meeting this morning with three dozen American policy thinkers...

The haste with which Democratic leaders rushed Wednesday to reinsert mentions of God and Jerusalem in their already published platform suggests that these party manifestos may actually matter to American voters and policymakers. And while Bill Clinton's stirring speech skipped over foreign affairs, the parties' contrasting platforms provide Americans and...

In opening Tuesday's General Assembly debate on Syria, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon savored an I-told-you-so moment. Having defied demands from Israel and its American supporters that he boycott last week's summit meeting in Tehran of the Non-Aligned Movement, or NAM, he could report with relish, "I engaged...

Last Thursday United Nations mediator Kofi Annan announced he was folding his peacemaker's tent, leaving Syria's obdurate government to meet its fate in a test of arms. And the flight to Jordan Monday of Syrian prime minister Riyad Farid Hijab demonstrates that growing numbers of longtime stalwarts of the Ba'ath...

In their dueling speeches to the Veterans of Foreign Wars this week, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have offered pointedly contrasting visions on American defense and foreign policy. Foreign embassies are parsing their texts for clues to likely American behavior in coming years as they prepare cables for their governments...

The stunning suicide attack Wednesday morning that struck at the heart of Syria's security state, killing the defense minister and other top military officials, could not have been better timed to shake Russia's leaders out of their go-slow complacency toward forcing an end to the fighting there. They confront a...

There are still some patriotic citizens willing to join the cabinet of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; he swore in new ministers Tuesday. But if any of them still imagined that the unrest gripping the country could be safely contained, they now have heard differently.

Perhaps they heard the artillery pounding...