The duration of the latest Syrian cease-fire may matter less than its genesis. Russia, Turkey and Iran brokered the agreement without U.S. involvement — a worrying sign of the waning regional influence of the world’s only superpower. Whether this decline is temporary or permanent remains to be seen. What is abundantly clear is that, having decided not to intervene …

  Negotiations between Nicos Anastasiades, the Greek Cypriot leader, and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart, Mustafa Akinci, in November failed to find any solution for decades-old division of Cyprus. The talks, held in Switzerland, were supposed to produce a map of the internal boundaries of a future federation on Cyprus and pave the way for broader talks. But the two-day session …

  On January 6, the Labor Department will release the final monthly employment report of what has been an historic eight-year run of jobs growth during the Barack Obama administration. This period confirmed some of our beliefs about the economy but also exposed the limitations of our understanding of a structurally changing employment situation. Here are three main takeaways from …