Israel’s reputation as an innovation nation – which seems set for very pointed reinforcement in 2014 – long ago began approaching the status of conventional wisdom. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it a central feature of his recent speech at Davos, and collaboration with the Jewish state is now...

Israeli officials today announced that the Jewish state had gained membership in two international organizations, one focused on democratic norms and the other emphasizing trade liberalization, with the country’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, shooting down reports of the Jewish state’s international isolation: “Next time you hear reports of diplomatic isolation...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared on Tuesday that Iran would continue bolstering its atomic program “forever,” the latest in a string of intransigent statements from top Iranian officials that had already weeks ago been labeled a diplomatic “train wreck” by CNN host Fareed Zakaria. Rouhani’s boasts came a few days after Iranian Supreme...

The Pacific Alliance is a bloc of five Latin American member states – Costa Rica just joined the initial four members of Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico – designed to promote economic growth specifically by focusing on trade liberalization. Geopolitically, it sits opposite another South American bloc – the “Common...

Agence France-Presse (AFP) Monday conveyed statements from various Iranian officials laying out “red lines” in the context of upcoming nuclear negotiations, with top political and military figures ruling out a range of concessions on issues related to ballistic missile development, the status of atomic sites, and uranium enrichment capabilities. But on Monday,...

The highly influential NightWatch intelligence bulletin on Monday underlined its assessment that despite rhetorical differences between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, their government’s respective stances “about Israel, peace in the Middle East, and the [United States]… do not differ.” The bulletin was evaluating the significance of a Friday incident in which Ali Larijani, the...