From Wolfgang Ischinger, Igor Ivanov, and Sam Nunn, the International Herald Tribune:  At the close of the Cold War, hopes were high for a more organized and peaceful international system. Two decades later, there is not much sign of one emerging.

“Empathize with your enemy.” It is the first of eleven lessons offered by the former US Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara in the award-winning 2002 documentary “Fog of War.”

In the first week of 2012, President Obama finally approved tough sanctions on Iran’s central bank, aiming to cripple Iran’s oil trade and thwart its advanced efforts to possess a nuclear weapon. Iran’s armed-forces commander, Gen. Ataollah Salehi, threatened military action against the USS John C.

From William J. Broad, the New York Times:  The 32 nations with materials that can fuel atom bombs are typically mum on security, which looks to the public like a closed world of barbed wire and armed guards. Behind the scenes, atomic insiders have long told horror stories of risky practices and security flaws

Atlantic Council South Asia Center Director Shuja Nawaz recently assisted in crafting and adopting a list of nuclear confidence-building measures at a meeting in Copenhagen with a group of retired senior officials, military officers, and academics from India and Pakistan.

In September 1991, President George H.W. Bush announced a series of sweeping measures fundamentally reshaping the American nuclear arsenal. One of them called for all U.S. ground-force tactical nuclear weapons to be returned from overseas bases and dismantled.

Saudi Arabia's announcement last week that it plans to build 16 nuclear reactors with a budget of more than $100 billion raises doubts about its nuclear ambitions.

Afghanistan expects U.S. aid to flow without interruption for six more years following the final U.S. troop withdrawal at the end of 2014 -- three years hence. Nothing is less certain.