USA Foreign Policy

  • Kerry looks for regional coalition to take on the Islamic State (+video)

    Secretary of State John Kerry faces a tough job crafting a regional coalition to confront the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq and Syria. For one thing, potential coalition partners don't necessarily trust each other – or the US.

  • Iraq humanitarian crisis eases, and US doves line up against 'new Iraq war'

    Antiwar politicians and activists who largely stood by Obama when he ordered limited strikes to avert a 'potential genocide' are sounding alarms over what they see as his military reengagement in Iraq.

  • Obama's new Iraq plan: A slippery slope to combat troops? (+video)

    Although President Obama has ruled out US combat troops in Iraq, concerns are nevertheless rising about how to address both the humanitarian crisis in northern Iraq and the broader threat posed by the Islamic State.

  • In Iraq leadership crisis, US and Iran playing on same side (+video)

    The US and Iran are seeing eye-to-eye on a growing number of challenges in the Middle East, including the need to replace Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq.

  • Air strikes can't solve Iraq's problems, Obama says. So what's the point?

    Air strikes to address the crisis in northern Iraq don't signal a change of strategy for Obama toward a military solution, experts say. They are an 'interim fix.'

  • Russia advances into Ukraine, West wonders what to do now (+video)

    Instead of pulling back from the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Russia appears to be escalating its involvement. More sanctions seem unlikely to bend Russian President Vladimir Putin.

  • Another 'red line'? Obama again considers airstrikes in Syria (+video)

    As US officials work up plans to strike at the base of the Islamic State in Syria, the reluctant interventionist in the White House seems more likely to approve military action.

  • Can US defeat Islamic State without help from Assad? (+video)

    Some security experts are cautioning the administration about its anti-Assad stance, even as the US begins surveillance flights over Syria in anticipation of possible expanded US action against the Islamic State.

  • Why was one US hostage in Syria killed, and another freed?

    American freelance writer Peter Theo Curtis was released Sunday by an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, just days after James Foley was executed by another Islamist terror group.

  • Obama officials talk of 'defeating' Islamic State, but what steps will US take? (+video)

    The talk doesn't mean the US is on the verge of extending its air campaign against Islamic State fighters into Syria, or shifting from an adversarial to cooperative stance with Syrian leader Assad in the interest of defeating IS.

  • Why did US refuse Islamic State ransom demand for James Foley? (+video)

    Unlike some European countries, the US rules out paying ransom to terrorists for American citizens based on the conviction that paying for one hostage now leads to more hostage taking later.

  • Why did Islamic State militants execute James Foley? (+video)

    The execution of journalist James Foley was intended to send a message to young radicalized Muslims from Britain to Yemen who are drawn to the Islamists’ fight.

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September 1, 2014

Photos of Labor Day weekend

An Indian laborer loads goods on a bike at Chawri Bazar, in New Delhi, India, Monday. Chawri Bazar, is a specialized wholesale hardware market said to have started in the late 19th Century, mostly selling brass, copper and paper products.

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  • Air strikes can't solve Iraq's problems, Obama says. So what's the point?

    Air strikes to address the crisis in northern Iraq don't signal a change of strategy for Obama toward a military solution, experts say. They are an 'interim fix.'

  • President Obama: three takeaways on the way forward in Iraq (+video)

    After presiding over the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, President Obama didn't promise a timetable. 'Ultimately there's not going to be an American military solution to this problem,' he told reporters.

  • Obama intervenes in Iraq: lessons learned from Benghazi and Rwanda (+video)

    Benghazi and Rwanda, two crises where military intervention was not used, likely figured in the backdrop of Obama's decision on what to do about a looming genocide and an imminent threat to US personnel in Iraq.

  • US-Africa summit: much fanfare, but measuring its success will take time

    Obama's US-Africa Leaders Summit garnered pledges of $34 billion in trade and investment initiatives and agreements on security and good governance. Skeptics are withholding judgment.

  • Gaza talks in Cairo: Cease-fire may be all that Israel and Hamas can agree on (+video)

    Both Israel and Hamas prefer to discontinue the fighting, analysts say, but their long-term aims for Gaza appear irreconcilable, suggesting neither side will get what they want from the Cairo talks.

  • Gaza conflict: US zigzag between support, criticism of Israel more pronounced (+video)

    The State Department lashed out at Israel Sunday for what it called ‘disgraceful’ shelling of a refugee center. But two days earlier, President Obama had offered a full-throated defense of Israel’s Gaza offensive.

  • Historic US-Africa leaders summit aims to shift focus to continent's promise

    With the largest gathering ever of African leaders in the US, President Obama wants to move away from a view of Africa as defined by war, pestilence, and extremism to one that amplifies economic opportunities and strengthens democracy.

  • Gaza cease-fire: Did it help that US was taking a diplomatic breather?

    The 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, announced jointly by Kerry in India and the UN's Ban Ki-moon, had some in the Middle East thinking the US breather was a good idea.

  • US punishes Venezuela over brutal crackdown in spring. Why now?

    Pressure from Congress to impose sanctions over the repression, in which 40 protesters were killed and scores jailed, spiked after the failed extradition this week of a Venezuelan general, an alleged cocaine trafficker.

  • No Gaza cease-fire: Dramatic shift in Egypt deprived Kerry of vital tool (+video)

    Secretary Kerry has come under harsh criticism, particularly in Israel, for his efforts to secure a cease-fire in Gaza. Experts say Egypt's shift vis-à-vis Hamas has made diplomacy much harder.

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