Syria has always been among the Middle East's most repressive regimes. Any hope that Bashar al-Assad would usher in reform were naïve to begin with, the stuff of diplomats' fantasies. The question of what might come after Assad is a difficult one for American diplomats who have spent far more time trying to engage Assad and his functionaries than in reaching out to the Syrian opposition.

Meant as a humanitarian program to support the war-weary people of Iraq, The UN Oil-for-Food program came to symbolize not only Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's antipathy to his own people, but also UN administrators' venality and corruption.

A review of Eric Davis's Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity.

Before Saddam Hussein was ousted, Iraqi Kurdistan was more democratic than the rest of Iraq, but this is no longer the case.

Next month's elections offer an opportunity for Iraqi democracy to turn a corner.

The Coalition Provisional Authority should not allow violence to win concessions. Nor will de-Baathification appease Iraq's Arab Sunnis, many of whom also suffered under the Baath party.

Iraqi Kurdistan has achieved miracles since 1991, but it needs intellectuals, including journalists, to continue to move forward.

The fight against terrorism is no closer to success today than it was a decade ago when, in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks, President George W. Bush declared a Global War on Terrorism.