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.

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.

Dov Zakheim admits that his own appointment as coordinator for Afghanistan reconstruction – on top of his day job as Pentagon comptroller–in 2002 was a reflection of the Bush administration's lack of a serious policy. His concluding confession is notable for its mature humility, both about the need for American power and on the part of those who wield it.

Come November, it is very unlikely that conservative voters will stay home. So, barring a truly fringe GOP nominee, they will vote against Obama no matter what. Already, the conversation on the right is moving toward the all-important question of "electability."