First impressions matter. Experts say we size up new people in somewhere between 30 seconds and two minutes.

In Iran, there is no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, no independent judiciary, no free elections. There is no freedom of religion - not even for Shiites, who are forced by Iran's theocracy to adhere to one narrow set of official rules.

For 22 years, Bandar bin Sultan was Saudi Arabia's influential, irrepressible ambassador in Washington.

There's always Tunisia. Amid the smoking ruins of the Middle East, there is that one encouraging success story.

Like all forms of collective security, multilateral sanctions require a unanimity rarely achieved in international politics.

Scandinavia is boring. People living there apparently have little to do. And as European history teaches, when there is nothing much to do, you may as well amuse yourself by attacking the Jews.

The Obama administration has vastly expanded the use of armed drones and concentrated a great deal of diplomatic effort on building and maintaining alliances that share information about terrorists, provide access to get near them, and then strike against them.

Elections matter, but how much they matter depends entirely on how free, open and fair they are.

A great nation like the United States has many and varied interests, and we need both to do business with tyrants and to engage constantly in multilateral diplomacy.