Global Hotspots
  • U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

    Why Syria Is Obama’s Foreign Policy Proving Ground

    It is getting hard to count all the surprises arising from the Syrian crisis. And there are more coming. Outcomes unthinkable even a week ago can now be responsibly imagined—and pursued. Atop this...

  • U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

    U.S. Agrees to Deal on Syria's Chemical Weapons

    By Jay Solomon, The Washington Post

    GENEVA—The U.S. and Russia agreed Saturday on a broad framework for Syria to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons by the first half of next year. Moscow and Washington are demanding that Syrian...

  • Billions Spent in Afghanistan with No Game Plan

    By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

    The United States has spent $100 billion to rebuild and strengthen Afghanistan—without bothering to put in place a strategy to protect some of that money from waste, fraud and abuse. The lack of an...

  • Vladimir Putin’s 21 Most Provocative Quotes

    By Maureen Mackey, The Fiscal Times

    Never mind Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s diabolical dictator: Consider this combustible quote on Wednesday from Syria’s staunchest ally, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, writing in The New York Times ,...

  • Scoping Out the Costs of Striking Syria

    By Steven Brill, Reuters

    This article in Defense News estimates that if President Obama attacks Syria the cost would likely be "hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons," including $1.4 million for each Raytheon Tomahawk...