It was assumed that I would take a secondary role and men were given the last word,” said Dimaggio, an expert dialogue practitioner who runs New America’s Iran program from New York. “But that’s not to say that I accepted playing a secondary role.” She added that if major media outlets overlook qualified women when seeking expert commentary on foreign policy issues they should be held accountable, but more needs to be done by women as well.

Russell is understandably taken aback and, reflecting later, rather depressed: “I had encountered the link to the ancient culture of Iraq that I had been looking for and it was vanishing before my eyes … with their departure, Babylon has truly fallen.”

Regions with large Muslim populations in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa are no strangers to conflict and warfare, including protracted strife.

The U.S., Japan and other nations strongly condemned the apparent beheading of a Japanese journalist by the extremist group known as the Islamic State or ISIS. ISIS had demanded millions of dollars for his release.

The central claim of data proponents is that data always has some positive value. This premise is false. Data-gathering that seems innocuous enough to the managerial class often brings with it undue burden on the subjects of the data gathering.

Nineteen U.S. drone strikes killed 124 militants and four civilians in Yemen in 2014, according to the New America Foundation, which maintains a database of drone operations.

The uncertainty in Yemen should convince Washington to reevaluate its al-Qaeda strategy. But with the Huthis sure to spar with AQAP, America might want to catch its breath on the sidelines—as one local adversary fights a global one—before reentering the game.

As the brutal Boko Haram insurgency has entered its 7th year in Nigeria, the relationship between the government and China has deepened. In many ways it is a match of needs.

"The Pakistani Taliban was more dangerous six years back. Since 2009, military offensives have pushed it back and there is a situation now where the Afghani Taliban leadership is in Pakistan and that of the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan," said Lieven.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Indians to address climate change, overcome religious divisions, and promote gender equality, while addressing an audience largely consisting of 1,500 students in New Delhi on Tuesday. Additionally on Monday the U.S. Agency for International Development announced that it had suspended International Relief and Development (IRD), one of the largest federal nonprofit contractors for “serious misconduct”

The easiest way to compound the tragedy in Paris would be to use the deaths of Charlie Hebdo’s editor, Stephane Charbonnier, and 11 others to fan the flames of religious hatred. Surely we can defend people’s right to express themselves without approving or endorsing their views. In the case of Charlie Hebdo, the decision not to disseminate its cartoons can be driven not by fear, but by respect.

Despite Saudi oil policies that benefit American economic interests, the Saudi-American alliance--which was more like a melding of minds under the George W. Bush administration--has in recent years frayed.

Anatol Lieven, professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar, has written extensively on Islamist terrorism and Pakistan. His 2011 book Pakistan: A Hard Country was widely praised. He was at the Jaipur Literature Festival and spoke to ET on why Pakistan should stop aiding terrorist groups working against India.

Anatol Lieven, author of Pakistan: A Hard Country, said Pakistan now has a new attitude towards domestic militancy but fear of India has not gone. "There is however a change of heart, not complete, but significant," he said.

I keep wondering, are we in 2045 still going to have the winners of world war two running the world with vetoes on the security council? Really? But we are incapable of reforming those institutions, which means the vast majority of the world’s population is not represented, which does not foster cohesion.

U.S. leadership would have been better advised to be front and center," Slaughter added. "I thought that was not only a moment missed, but it confirmed a narrative the Obama administration does not want confirmed, which is, you're not there.

Dr. Anish Goel, Senior South Asia Fellow at the New American Foundation, recently spoke at Asia Society Texas Center about Narendra Modi’s rise to power, subsequent reforms, and pragmatism as he positions India to be a global power.