(Council on Foreign Relations)- Syria’s civil war has grown ever more complex in the nearly six years since protesters first challenged the government. President Bashar al-Assad aims to reassert control nationwide, while predominantly Sunni Arab opposition forces seek to wrest the state from...

Anyone who has spent time living in or studying the Middle East will be familiar with the work of Patrick Seale, who died last weekend in London after a battle with brain cancer. Seale was a journalist and long-term observer of the region and wrote what is still, two decades after it was...

The U.S. is economically blacklisting five more Russians, including a senior law enforcement official in President Vladimir Putin's government. Under the sanctions, their assets are blocked and people in the United States are generally prohibited from dealing with them. The new sanctions...

The leaders of both sides of ethnically divided Cyprus began new unification talks on Monday but sought to temper hopes of a swift breakthrough, though its U.N. envoy said a deal to resolve one of Europe's most enduring conflicts was within reach. Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci and...