The delusion that one can settle our little disagreements with the Islamic Republic, if only the right people sit around the right conference table, has seized every administration since Carter.

Who is the most important black leader in America today? The answer may be changing.

The new president will need to decide whether democracy in the process is more important than democracy as the final result. How should the United States react if, as the new regimes rewrite their constitutions, they turn from democracy toward theocracy? (INCLUDES VIDEO)

Why Moscow is making a U.S. military strike on Iran more likely.

On her first foray outside the US as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who flies to London today, says she is bringing Europe a message stressing the importance of alliances and diplomacy at a moment of opportunity in Iraq and the Middle East peace process.

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.

Will the good words of Tony Blair and Condoleezza Rice be backed up by action?

Mr Duncan Smith's trip to the US is his first since becoming leader of the Opposition, and will include talks with Vice-President Dick Cheney and the president's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.