News stories by Analysis by Eli Clifton

Gleeful Israeli leaders and their neo-conservative supporters here have spent much of the past week insisting that the State Department cables published by Wikileaks prove that Sunni Arab leaders in the Middle East are far more preoccupied with the threat posed by an ascendant and possibly nuclear Iran than with a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Thursday's formal accusation by South Korea that a North Korean torpedo sunk the warship Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors, has set off a flurry of activity in Washington as politicians and foreign policy experts try to identify an appropriate U.S. response while balancing the need to maintain a stable relationship with China - the North's biggest sponsor.

A protest of more than 90,000 Okinawans Sunday over the proposed relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps airbase in the southern Japanese prefecture has fueled speculation in Washington that the U.S.-Japanese alliance may be facing a serious test with the election of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), and that such strains might have serious implications for the U.S.'s ability to balance Chinese naval power in East Asia.

The past two weeks have been marked by major foreign policy accomplishments for U.S. President Barack Obama, including the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), the signing of a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, and what appear to be improvements in the increasingly tense Washington-Beijing relationship.

Tuesday's loss by the Democrats of their 60th Senate seat has raised serious questions about the outlook for the White House's policy agenda and spurred a rash of finger-pointing among Democrats over who bears responsibility for the very public rebuke issued by Massachusetts voters.

Since before taking office, U.S. President Barack Obama has been no stranger to being in the crosshairs of Republican pundits who have accused him of everything from bring a 'secret communist' to a tax-and-spend liberal who would oversee huge expansions in the federal government.

The United States Congress returns to work Tuesday after a turbulent summer recess that has raised doubts over President Barack Obama's ability to face down domestic opposition from Republicans and enforce party cohesion on issues ranging from healthcare reform to troop commitments in the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s trip to North Korea to secure the release of two U.S. journalists has called attention to the lack of engagement over the past five-months since Pyongyang quit the six-party talks. While Clinton’s trip is widely seen as a positive development and the first step in re-engaging Pyongyang in negotiating the future of their nuclear programme, more questions than answers remain about what was discussed during North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and Clinton’s three hour meeting and how the meeting will impact the future of regional diplomacy in Northeast Asia.