During an official visit by Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos to the White House on Tuesday, President Obama reiterated his government's support for continued peace talks between the Colombian government and the Marxist rebel group, FARC. The meeting between the two hemispheric leaders focused on the ongoing peace talks, being held in Havana, Cuba, and on other issues like human rights and trade.

In a victory for diplomacy, world leaders announced early Sunday that a deal had been struck with Iran over its disputed nuclear program. In what U.S. President Barack Obama called an "important first step" toward addressing the world's concerns over Iran’s motivations and actions and opening a path out of a three-decade long standoff, the deal will curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions away from a bomb and toward a civilian capability, in exchange for limited relief—for now—from strict sanctions that have devastated the Iranian economy.

What's the best evidence that things are really changing in the Mideast? It is the spectacle of Israel and Saudi Arabia, hitherto America's two closest allies in the region, glowering darkly on the sidelines (and more or less in unison) as the United States and Iran begin an engagement that is already more profound than anything we've seen since the Iranian revolution of 1979. This historic shift, punctuated by the signing Saturday of a six-month, nuclear-freeze deal that both Israel and Saudi Arabia had loudly opposed, could potentially transform the entire region.

Attention-starved former NBA star Dennis Rodman has renewed his effort to bring peace to U.S.-North Korean relations, or is trying to promote his new brand of vodka. With him, it’s hard to tell. Readers will recall that Rodman made headlines earlier this year when he traveled to North Korea as part of a basketball delegation that was taping an episode for the HBO show Vice.

Diplomats often speak with purposeful ambiguity, to please multiple audiences and to not give away their hand prematurely. But a careful parsing of diplo-speak can offer valuable clues in anticipating future policy moves. In what was billed as a major statement on U.S. policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean, earlier this week Secretary of State John Kerry included four substantive paragraphs on Cuba — which were largely misinterpreted by the U.S. media.

Israeli-American relations are in free fall. Why? On the face of it the key issue is the terms of the draft deal with Iran that Secretary of State John Kerry was reportedly ready to sign in Geneva, week before last. Yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated yet again that it is “a bad deal.” And last week Israel’s intelligence minister, Yuval Steinitz, claimed the concessions to Tehran that the United States is contemplating will funnel between $20 and $40 billion to Iran’s coffers.

Here’s a statistic from an official Pentagon presentation, recently revealed at a security industry conference in Augusta, Georgia. The subject was American military interventions since the end of World War II. The figures: 44 interventions – one a year – between 1945 and 1989; and another 100 – three to four a year – since the end of the Cold War.

Caroline Kennedy took the post of U.S. Ambassador to Japan today, half a century after her father John’s dream of becoming the first sitting president to visit the country was cut short. Referring to John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy said on her arrival in Tokyo she was “proud to carry forward my father’s legacy of public service,” adding she would “work to strengthen the close ties between our two great countries.”