The conflict in Syria leaves western powers with no good choices, and their agony is intensified by Islamist advances in west Africa. The search for intelligent security responses goes on.
When the United States led the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, it planned to extend its power from Afghanistan to the wider region. Today, the actions of leading states - Russia, Pakistan, and China among them - are contributing to a very different outcome.
A significant change of thinking inside Britain's military services raises the prospect that the long-term ambition of nuclear disarmament could become reality.
An interplay of domestic politics, military pressures and regional tensions means there is an acute danger of war before the United States presidential election.
There are striking connections across decades and enmities in the evolving methods of armed warfare. In particular, non-state actors will soon be deploying versions of the armed-drones now wielded by western powers.
A pressure-cooker mix of electoral, technical and diplomatic factors is shaping the potential for conflict over Iran.
The number of child migrants to the USA continues to rise despite border militarization. Liz Kennedy teaches at shelters along the Mexico-US border where those caught are detained. She reveals why they feel that the 2,000 mile journey is their only choice.
What are the prospects of war over Iran? The hi-tech arms and intelligence trade between Washington and its regional allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, is a guide.
The destructive potential of Syria's conflict is creating alarm in Washington and a bare margin of hope for diplomatic progress.
The understanding of global climate change has deepened since the 1970s, in parallel with voluminous research into and clear scientific evidence of its reality. The obstacles to recognition remain powerful. But this, the 2010s, really is the crucial decade.
The American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 launched a grand strategy to reorder the middle east. A decade on, growing tensions over Iran and the conflict in Syria suggest that it created the seeds of even greater instability.
