Middle East

As Iranians head to the polls, much of the world is focused on the country’s domestic politics not on how how the vote will change its foreign policy. Even so, the election has exposed the range of choices that is available to decision-makers and the political limits that are placed on those choices.

The Obama administration relies on drones for one simple reason: they work. Drone strikes have devastated al Qaeda at little financial cost, at no risk to U.S. forces, and with fewer civilian casualties than many alternative methods would have caused.

Citizens across the Middle East recognize that there is much to gain from closer ties with the United States. A carefully designed U.S. foreign policy should incorporate, rather than alienate, them.

The outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome has led to a global controversy over who legally owns the intellectual property of a virus, whether a virus can be patented, and how to share samples of it once it is. But all the bickering has obscured the fact that pandemics aren't problems that can be litigated away.