Perhaps it's time to add the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to that list of things that, like houseguests and fish, can overstay their welcome. The bank now strays so far from its original remit that it risks spoiling the legacy of its earlier successes. The EBRD should quit while ahead, declare victory and be privatized.

It may sound counterintuitive, even heretical, but it could just be that Israel is overlooking -- or worse, helping to block -- what is possibly the best option available for avoiding a nuclear Iran.

Direct American-led negotiations are not in play, and Israel is complicit in this omission. The United States looms largest in Iranian threat perceptions and only the U.S. -- not the EU, UN, or the International Atomic Energy Agency -- can deliver a deal for verifiable re-suspension of an Iranian nuclear weapons program.

After seven lean years, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are back on the agenda for a planned summit meeting next month in Annapolis, Maryland. Intriguingly, the return of the peace process coincides with an unusual public debate taking place in America regarding the U.S.-Israel relationship following the attention received by a book about the Israel lobby.

The key political question in Russia over the past two decades has not been about the relationship between democracy and dictatorship, but between different kinds of oligarchy. The oligarchy that has taken shape under President Vladimir Putin is far more coherent, close-knit and disciplined than Boris Yeltsin’s collection of feuding magnates. It has a common culture and ethic drawn from the common origins of many of its members in the Soviet security services. Its comparative success is due to these factors, as well as good luck with energy prices and good economic management.