President Obama came into office promising to change the United States’ policy toward Iran – but it was never clear exactly what that change would be.

One of the issues that has most irked me about the Obama administration’s approach to trying to move the economy forward is a fundamental misunderstanding about US national interests and how corporate behavior works.

It seems that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s political shrewdness and theatrical performances have reached a whole new level.

Katherine Tiedemann is a policy analyst at the New America Foundation/Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative and author of the AfPak Daily Brief. This post originally appeared on the AfPak Channel, a new joint venture between the New America Foundation and Foreign Policy to explain and analyze the conflict in South Asia.

In this video blog, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev laments the deteriorating relations between Moscow and Kiev, and explains his decision to recall Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine for an indefinite period.

Today the “Three Amigos” wrapped up the annual two-day summit between Canada, Mexico, and the United States with a press conference in Guadalajara, Mexico. Expectations going into the summit were muted as the leaders mostly followed up on previously agreed upon measures rather than breakthrough negotiations over new issues.

The news last week of the alleged killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has sparked a round of confused and contradictory messages from various parties. American and Pakistani officials claim with more and more certainty that Mehsud is dead.

Reports are in on the new Richard Gere film, Hachiko: A Dog Story. All of my friends who saw it were in tears. They said it’s sort of a Marley and Me type deal. Enough of Hachiko — but I did want to post my picture with the famous dog’s commemorative statue.

Some newer readers may not know that there are a substantial number of TWN readers who actually come to the blog for the pup pictures — not my content or even to read our various dueling commentators.

Actor Richard Gere allegedly cried when he first read about the tale of a Japanese akita named Hachiko waiting at the Shibuya train station each day for its master who had died and never showed up.