Rising social costs, shrinking labor pools, nonperforming loans, a distorted economy and more—an in-depth look at the huge challenge facing Beijing.
Geography and demography now trump democracy in Israel. The country pays lip service to the two-state solution while steadily appropriating the land it wants in the occupied territories.
War is costly. Nation building is costlier. And nation-building projects almost never succeed, as this analysis demonstrates.
Iraq faces major questions about the power-sharing agreements between Baghdad and Iraq's various regions. A solution may require granting greater autonomy to the country's Kurds than to other regions.
Obama can take credit for several foreign-policy triumphs, but he has failed to revive the moribund Mideast peace process. Arguments for why it can’t be done crumble against the imperative of American presidential leadership.
Sunni vs. Shia. Kurd vs. Arab. Nationalist vs. Islamist. Iraq circa 2011 is looking an awful lot like Iraq circa 2004. The country is headed back to the anarchic depths from which it ever-so-briefly emerged.
Saudi Arabia is the guardian of the Mideast counterrevolution—and America is its greatest enabler. A club of royals under the Kingdom’s protection is now a reality.
Iran's culture wars between its Persian imperial past and Arab Muslim influence have been raging since long before the 1979 revolution.
With the most diverse society in the world, India can serve as a model to the West in its struggles to reconcile liberal democracy with Islam.
One doesn’t need to be a Russian domestic radical or a foreign Russophobe to see major flaws in the way Russia is ruled. The population, however, is satisfied with the status quo...for now.
