Richard Weitz

Azerbaijani foreign policy officials and analysts see few signs that the election of Hasan Rowhani as Iran’s next president will bring about any meaningful changes in Iran’s foreign policies—whether regarding Israel, Tehran’s controversial nuclear program or Azerbaijan’s tense relationship with the Islamic Republic. more

This weekend’s summit between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping had several key objectives: personal trust building between the two leaders; halting negative momentum and reducing tensions in bilateral relations; and signaling to domestic and international audiences that the two sides can work together. But the main objective—and outcome—of the meeting was mutual reassurance. more

At this weekend’s Shangri-La Dialogue, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reaffirmed the core tenets of the Asia Pivot and showed how the Pentagon was still executing the strategy despite budgetary constraints and the departure from the Obama administration of some of its key architects. Yet reactions to the speech from Asian defense officials present made clear that the pivot continues to face serious obstacles. more

The May 23 Moscow European Security Conference, which gathered government representatives and analysts to discuss the range of issues confronting policymakers for European security today, highlighted the many areas of divergence between Russia and the West on matters of European and global security. But it also offered some opportunities for renewed engagement and dialogue on these often divisive issues. more

At their White House summit last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Barack Obama jointly called for greater international efforts to end the Syrian civil war, though the two leaders reportedly differ on how directly the West should become involved. Meanwhile, the preoccupation with Syria has obscured unresolved sources of tension between the two countries on other issues. more

The victory by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan’s national elections offers the U.S. an opportunity to develop and execute a strategy for improving the troubled relationship with Islamabad. Although the Obama administration has defined detailed goals for what it would like to achieve in Afghanistan, as well as strategies for attaining them, U.S. officials have yet to do the same for Pakistan.

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South Korean President Park Geun-hye is currently in the United States, where she will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House, attend a special dinner to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the U.S.-South Korean alliance and address a joint session of Congress, among other activities. She will also travel to New York and Los Angeles, but not to other countries, underscoring the trip’s significance. more

The recent review conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention addressed many important issues, but overshadowing them all are revolutionary changes in chemistry, biology and nano and information technologies. Some of the implications of these scientific and technological developments are potentially positive. Unfortunately, some of the likely results could have extremely negative repercussions for the CWC. more

The significance of the ethnicity of the two Boston Marathon bombers is still unclear, as are the reasons for their transformation into Islamist terrorists, but the latest evidence seems to suggest that the elder Tsarnaev brother’s trip last year to the North Caucasus played a key role. Many of the family’s relatives still live in the region, which has been a hotbed of militant radicalism for at least a century. more

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen recently undertook a week-long visit to Japan and South Korea, highlighting NATO's growing role in Asian security. Rasmussen is convinced that NATO needs to deepen cooperation with partner states to address global security issues. Conversely, NATO’s unique capabilities and experience can be applied to joint efforts to address security concerns in Asia and beyond. more

South Korea finds itself in a difficult situation. On one hand, it must respond to North Korea’s missile threats. On the other, it must do so without provoking Pyongyang or Beijing. Chinese officials are already concerned by South Korea’s strengthening security ties with the U.S., particularly in BMD cooperation. But the added pressure closer cooperation puts on China to rein in Pyongyang could prove helpful. more

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai was in Qatar this weekend to talk with Qatari leaders about establishing an office of the Afghan Taliban insurgents in Doha. The visit underscores the degree to which, after months of stalemate, the prospects for a peace agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban have recently risen. But a number of factors continue to make a sustainable peace deal a tall order. more

This weekend’s visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow resulted in no major agreements. Yet expectations were low for the summit, so the lack of headline deals came as little surprise. More surprising, however, was the extent to which Xi aligned Beijing’s foreign policy views with those of Russia in his public statements while in Moscow -- a warning to Washington that should not be overlooked. more

The Obama administration’s decision to adapt U.S. BMD plans in response to the threat posed by North Korea provides an opportunity for Russian President Vladimir Putin to set aside the protracted but unnecessary dispute with the U.S. over BMD. Putin is the one person in Russia who could make the concessions needed to pursue stronger Russia-U.S. cooperation on the more important interests they share. more

In recent weeks, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials threatened to abandon decades of effort to join the European Union and instead seek membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Their remarks should not be surprising, since Ankara has become increasingly skillful at leveraging Turkey’s new ties with its eastern partners to gain advantages in the West. more

At last month’s NATO meeting, one of the main topics of discussion concerned how many coalition forces will remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014, as well as what their mission will be. As NATO withdraws its forces and reduces its other military support to the Afghan government, it is essential that the alliance plan carefully for drawing down its operations in the country if it is to maintain recent gains. more

Newly inaugurated South Korean President Park Geun-hye will need to address the demands from a faction of her own party for either the United States to return tactical nuclear weapons to the South or for Seoul to develop its own nuclear arsenal. In light of the Feb. 12 North Korean nuclear test, this faction believes that Seoul needs a nuclear capability to deter potential North Korean military threats. But that simply isn't true. more

While China expressed its opposition to North Korea's nuclear test, Beijing also stated its desire to see an early resumption of the Six-Party Talks seeking a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. Despite their irritation with the North Korean regime, most Chinese officials appear more concerned about the potential collapse of the North Korean state than about its pursuit of nuclear and missile programs. more

In his second annual report on NATO, released at the end of January, and in his Feb. 2 speech to the 2013 Munich Security Conference, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen laid out a very ambitious current and future security agenda for the alliance, while stressing the need for NATO governments to sustain adequate defense spending to develop the capabilities needed to achieve the alliance’s goals. more

It is no accident that European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton proposed, and Iran has accepted, holding the next round of nuclear talks in Kazakhstan on Feb. 25. Kazakhstani Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov reaffirmed his country’s readiness to host the next round of talks during a late-January visit to Moscow, highlighting a bilateral relationship that is driven by pragmatism on both sides. more