John Tirman

The news from Baghdad is good. The nuclear talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 countries paused somewhat amicably, with signs of progress and a schedule to meet in a month in Moscow. The question is, as always, how many ways can this progress be derailed?

Details of what transpired...

I have been puzzling over Year Two of the Arab Spring. The signals remain mixed. The apparent power of the Muslim Brotherhood and others of similar fervency is frankly worrisome. The economies of these countries -- Egypt particularly -- are in the doldrums and don't look like they will escape...

I recall a vivid passage in Kai Bird's fine book about the Bundy brothers, McGeorge and William, when Mac Bundy was John F. Kennedy's national security adviser. It was early in JFK's presidency, and Bundy was being briefed by Daniel Ellsberg, then a wunderkind of the nuclear priesthood, on U.S....

The nearly complete mastery of U.S. politics that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again displayed in Washington last week belies a dark reality for the Jewish State. That is the startling prospect that it has sown the seeds of its own destruction, one which will come to its ghastly fruition...

Afghanistan is slipping away. Not slipping away like a thief in the night, but slipping out of our conscious grasp. Like Iraq, it's a venue of escape for Americans, a place from which to flee.

We see little spurts of stories that punctuate the foreign news beat -- the Koran...

As America's involvement diminished last autumn, I wondered how the Iraq War would be remembered. Would we recall only the U.S. sacrifice of blood and treasure, or would we grapple with its broader meaning -- not least the hundreds of thousands dead, the millions displaced, the "smoking ruin" of...

The perpetual rabble-rousing issue of Republican politics -- illegal immigration -- is making its way through the primary season. In largely predictable ways, candidates mold their view to the particular contours of each primary state -- vicious toward undocumented workers in places like South Carolina, more nuanced in Hispanic-rich Florida.

It was striking how strong Mitt Romney's victory speech was in New Hampshire last week, not merely the boastful strength of a candidate who's on a roll, but one throwing down gauntlets. He was testing the themes of his challenge to President Obama, not Gingrich, Paul, and Santorum.

As...

Of the many oddities of the Republican challengers to President Obama, the most serious is their vow to go to war with Iran. This is now such a common staple of GOP rhetoric in the campaign trail that it's scarcely newsworthy when yet another White House aspirant thumps the war...