Up until very recently, Syria had its eyes firmly fixed on the spoils to be offered by the United States and its western allies. Today, the same may not be so true. For several years Damascus has been hoping to realign with the West and welcome famous politicians and diplomats to the “new” Syria.

No matter what you think of Gen. McChrystal after the Rolling Stone article and the fiasco that ensued, he knew how to work in Afghanistan. Here are a few things he got right.

Barack Obama went traditional. Decked out in a light blue shirt and burgundy tie, the U.S. president ordered a cheddar-cheeseburger with onions, lettuce, tomato, and bread-and-butter pickles. He drank iced tea. Dmitry Medvedev added a little spice. The Russian leader, sporting a white shirt and dark tie, went for a cheddar-cheeseburger with onions, jalapenos, and mushrooms. He drank a Coke.

The US needs to tread carefully and to give some thought to how a united Taiwan and China would impact US interests. If we do, indeed, move in this direction, we can expect a renewed confidence in the Chinese military, no longer constrained by concerns of having to face US forces in the Taiwan Strait. In other words, we can expect structural changes in US military strategy in the Taiwan Strait area and in its relations with both China and Japan.

In an increasingly globalized world, cooperation between the Arab world and the Pacific islands can be a decisive force for change, UAE Foreign Minister HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said today.

On Wednesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev toured the headquarters of Twitter. Besides having a fruitful cultural exchange with Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, he also fired off his first tweet

It is the friendship Western policymakers wish they could have prevented: Turkey- secular, Western-leaning, and a key member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - drawing close to a resurgent theocratic Iran whose nuclear program and geopolitical ambitions present a full-frontal challenge to the established international order.

US academics yesterday highlighted the role of Taiwan in the White House's foreign policy, saying Taiwan's interests were “not negotiable” in the shaping of US policy on China. Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based policy research and advocacy organization, told a forum that “the bilateral relationship between the US and Taiwan is one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world.”