WASHINGTON -- John Kerry's first task as incoming secretary of state should be to develop a coherent policy for Syria, where U.S. sanctions are proving counterproductive, the fighting around Damascus is deadlocked, the economy is in ruins and the ...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is working with its allies to frame a strategy to combat what might be called "al-Qaeda 2.0" -- an evolving, morphing terrorist threat that lacks a coherent center but is causing growing trouble in chaotic, ...

WASHINGTON -- Chuck Hagel means it when he describes himself as an "Eisenhower Republican." He kept a bust of President Dwight Eisenhower in his Senate office for a dozen years, and has a portrait of Ike on the wall of his current office at ...

WASHINGTON -- In his essay "Politics as a Vocation," the German sociologist Max Weber famously wrote that "politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards." In this sense, it seems possible that Barack Obama has finally come to embrace the ...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- A week ago, Saudi Arabia saw something that people in the kingdom often talk about but rarely witness -- a potentially important political reform.

Saudi King Abdullah announced on Jan. 11 that 30 women would join the ...