The Damascus neighborhood known as Mezze 86 is a dense, dilapidated warren of narrow hillside streets adorned with posters bearing the face of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad. The presidential palace is nearby, and the area is...

I'm in Oslo to give a seminar and a public lecture at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies, and I'm looking forward to hearing how world politics looks from a Nordic perspective. I haven't been to Norway since 2009, when my visit coincided with the Norwegian Nobel Committee's surprising...

Frustrated by the  muddle that is  U.S. policy in Syria, a growing cadre of hawkish Democrats are putting pressure on the White House to finally outline to the public and to Congress its objectives in the protracted 2 ½ year civil war. The latest and perhaps most outspoken Democrat...

Four Egyptian Shia Muslims have been killed in a mob attack in a village near the capital Cairo, officials say. The attack on Sunday targeted a house where a group of Shia worshippers had gathered for a religious ceremony. The attackers accused those gathered of trying to spread Shia...