Five years ago today, then-House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi defied President George Bush's strategy of isolating Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad by going to Damascus. "We do not encourage and, in fact, we discourage members of Congress to make such visits to Syria," the White House spokesman said, calling Syria "a state sponsor of terror."

At this event, panelists discussed U.S.-Syria policy.

Several years ago, Farid Ghadry​--a Syrian exile activist--published a piece in the Middle East Quarterly looking at what political trends lay beneath the surface of Syria's Baathist dictatorship. He identified the discussions groups that arose during the short-lived "Damascus Spring" and hypothesized that they represented the proto-political parties which might develop.

Governor Salmaan Taseer's murder raises questions about the future of Pakistan's Western-educated elites.

What happens when U.S.-backed dictators around the world die?

Syrian support for Islamist terrorism is at the heart of its threat to U.S. national security.

The Talibanization of Pakistan will stop only when the Taliban in Afghanistan have been extirpated.

The situation in Iraq is deteriorating. The reasons are simple. Instead of promoting Iraqi sovereignty, Foggy Bottom has sought to limit it.