This Week on ForeignAffairs.com

In an effort to halt Iran's nuclear program, Washington and the West have been ramping up the pressure with sanctions and threats of war. None of it will work. The Green Movement has been vanquished, and the country -- both its leadership and its people -- are poised not for revolution, but more of the same. Read

An interview with the author of "Christmas is No Time for an Iranian Revolution."

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The new sanctions regime places the United States' tactics and objectives -- a negotiated end to Iran's nuclear ambitions -- at odds. In effect, the administration has backed itself into a policy of regime change, an outcome it has little ability to influence.

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The new Taliban office in Qatar could open the door for negotiation and bring the war in Afghanistan to a peaceful end. Despite the significant risks, it would still be better to move forward cautiously, rather than not engage at all. Read

L. Carl Brown, emeritus professor of history at Princeton University, selects and reviews books on the Middle East for each issue of Foreign Affairs.

From January/February 2012:

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More and more outsiders are calling for a humanitarian intervention in Syria to stop Bashar al-Assad's killing sprees. But for this to work, Syria's various opposition groups will have to first coalesce into a single, unified political and military force. Read

A global conversation has emerged about the growing gap between the rich and poor. New academic research shows that this is more than just a moral or social issue. The less equal a society, the more prone it is to instability. Read

China seems to want the yuan to dethrone the dollar as the global reserve currency. But don’t expect China’s currency to take over anytime soon. The yuan will rise, but far slower than predicted, and Beijing’s puzzling efforts to help it along reveal flaws in the government’s divided and incremental approach. Read

The magazine is marking its 90-year milestone with special features, events, and offers for readers. Read