The United States and its allies and partners must not only understand Iran’s regional strategy and influence but also develop a coherent strategy of their own with which to confront them. Considering the relative economic, political, and diplomatic power of the two sides, it is unacceptable for the United States and its allies to allow Iran even such progress as it has made in these realms.

On Dec. 14, 2011, President Obama proudly proclaimed the “end” to the Iraq war, announcing that “there is something profound about the end of a war that has lasted so long." For nearly a decade, AEI scholars have written on the conduct of the Iraq war, the foundations of the invasion and the prospects for a postwar Iraq.

The Iraq Effect is a thought-provoking but flawed study commissioned by the U.S. Air Force on the regional implications of the 2003 Iraq war. Trends discussed may be real, but their presence before Operation Iraqi Freedom suggests that they should not be attributed only to the war.

A new report by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) argues that one of the greatest mistakes the United States can make is to imagine that Iranian activities in a given arena--the nuclear program, for example--are isolated from Iranian undertakings in another. The report examines those other areas

The freedom enjoyed in Najaf as a result of American actions in 2003 and 2004 will not matter if the United States has no diplomats permanently in Shiite Islam's Vatican City, ready to make Washington's case; America's enemies will define our legacy.

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va.) has long been on almost everyone's short list for the Republican vice presidential nomination. But now McDonnell's national security credentials have come into question, thanks to his mishandling of a bill passed by the Virginia General Assembly.

Progress in Iraq remains fragile and reversible, but the United States and Iraq have the chance to solidify a successful state, so the United States must see the project through.

As our target date for the handover of sovereign authority to the Iraqis draws close, we must expect that enemies of a free Iraq will become even more violent.