WASHINGTON ― On June 17, at his first press conference as Iran’s President-elect, Hassan Rowhani broke little new ground in the Islamic Republic’s relations with the West. On nuclear policy, he said that the “era of suspension is over”: Iran will not accept the suspension of uranium enrichment in upcoming negotiations but will seek to make its nuclear activities more transparent in order to build international confidence. Moreover, Iran would welcome direct negotiations with the United States if

As China has risen, the U.S. has grappled with the task of coming to terms with this constantly more prominent reality on the international scene. This has not been a smooth process, indeed it has been marked by many disagreements and considerable friction. From time to time, various negative features of China’s emergence have been emphasized in the U.S. and other Western countries, such as its record on democracy and human rights.Official agencies have led the criticism, and, taking their cue f

Recently South Korea has acceded to a number of international conventions covering children’s rights, adoption issues and international child abduction. In March the U.N. convention on child abduction was signed and in May the convention on international adoption. And yet despite all of this seeming advancement, the decisions of the South Korean judiciary still must meet international standards required before these treaties will be effective in practice.This is because all of these treaties hav