At the NATO summit in Chicago, the much hoped-for deal between the United States and Pakistan to reopen NATO supply routes through Pakistan did not materialize. The experience of the closure and the negotiations has laid bare the changed relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan.

Tensions within Iran's conservative elite have been evident throughout 2010. The divisions within the regime's ruling elite, however, have been confined to matters of Iran's domestic policies and bureaucratic competition.

According to the new calculations of the Social Security Trustees’ 2012 Report, Social Security’s future costs are a lot bigger than its future income.

Reinhart and Reinhart find that economic growth is slower in the decade following a macroeconomic disruption, and extend their results to show that a faltering of economic recovery is not uncommon after a severe financial shock-although this can often be ascribed to exogenous events.

SymphonyIRI reports that “57 percent of consumers are feeling increased financial strain when gas prices increase, and more than four in ten say high gas prices make it difficult to meet monthly expenses,” based on polls conducted in the second quarter of 2011. Furthermore, 49 percent of consumers plan to reduce grocery spending if gas prices climb another 50 cents. What can be done?

After five years of wrenching economic recession, one has to wonder what it will take for Greece to cut itself loose from the failed IMF and EU policies that have reduced the country to its present terrible economic pass.

Ever since its founding in 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has maintained an aggressive and bellicose international security posture. Today, fully two decades after the end of the Cold War, North Korea's external defense and security policies look arguably more extreme and anomalous than ever.

This is no time for conciliation. Wars happens neither because America talks tough nor because the White House makes it clear that it will spare no effort to defend its allies against external threats.