Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview that the US is nearing a final “crunch time” on Syria — in which it will either make progress toward a cease-fire or begin moving toward “Plan B” and new military moves. For Kerry-watchers, it’s a familiar moment of brinkmanship: He’s making a last, desperate push for a diplomatic breakthrough with …

Early on Wednesday, Reuters published an interesting exclusive, suggesting that the United States and Indian navies are considering the idea of jointly conducting patrols in the South China Sea. It isn’t explicit if the idea under consideration is a bilateral US-India freedom of navigation patrol, which would require Indian and US vessels to challenge excessive maritime claims, or simply a …

European Union’s (EU) austerity measures have divided Europe as many member states are calling for relaxing these to address domestic concerns. While the goal of austerity is to reduce government debt through reduction of government spending, their effectiveness remains controversial. But with EU economies once again facing stagnation and unemployment persisting at record highs while Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in …