Iraqis may at last be on their way to the petro-prosperity they've waited so long to enjoy. They should be careful what they wish for.

The global middle class is more unstable and less liberal than we thought.

Why britain will lose to Argentina, or should, this time.

Europe needs a leader, but the likely candidate doesn't want the job.

Why the U.S. should hail the Islamists.

Japan was morbidly fascinated by the spectacle of Toyota president Akio Toyoda apologizing to the U.S. Congress for the deadly defects that led to the recall of 10 million of its cars worldwide. The appearance of the "de facto captain of this nation's manufacturing industry," as Japan's largest newspaper referred to Toyoda, seemed to symbolize a new bottom for a nation in decline. Once feared and admired in the West, Japan has stumbled for decades through a series of lackluster leaders and dashed hopes of revival. This year, Japan will be overtaken by China as the world's second-largest economy. Through it all, though, Japan could cling to one vestige of its former prestige: Toyota—the global gold standard for manufacturing quality.

In the past year, Israel's economy has managed to defy both the global economic crisis and the worsening security situation, posting an annualized 4.4 percent growth in the last quarter of 2009. Yuval Steinitz, Israel's 51-year-old finance minister, a philosopher by profession and a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claims much of the credit. Steinitz sat down recently with NEWSWEEK's Dan Ephron to explain his approach and the challenges Israel faces. Excerpts:

In response to U.S. pressure, India and Pakistan recently conducted their first diplomatic dialogue since the Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba staged its terrorist attack on Mumbai in November 2008. The discussions were acrimonious, and the blame game began almost immediately after. As a precondition for substantive negotiations, India demanded punishment of the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack and a crackdown on Lashkar-e-Taiba's paramilitary operations. Pakistan repeated its longstanding position that negotiations on other issues cannot proceed unless the Kashmir issue is addressed.

Tehran's master of clandestine operations, Qassem Suleimani, could hold the key to Iraq's future—if he were not so busy back in Iran.

The cleric Ammar al-Hakim, forced into a leadership role after his father's death, explains why Shiite political power won't suffer even as Shiite political parties fragment.

To generations of Londoners, the badlands began at the City's eastern frontier, just beneath the gleaming towers of the financial district. To stray beyond was to enter the darker world of the East End, the heartland of rough, tough Cockney culture. This was where successive waves of immigrants, from Russian Jews to Bangladeshi Muslims, found their first homes. It was poor, and it could be dangerous. To outsiders it meant gangland killings, grubby factories, trackless slums, and the docks. This was a place to escape: the wise got rich, then got out.

After his convalescence, the ailing dictator reimposed his authority—quashing hopes of internal reform and détente with the United States.

At 1:45 a.m. on Feb. 27, I slunk into bed. It was a loud night; my neighbors were hosting a raucous birthday party, which called for several renditions of "Feliz Cumpleaños." Waiting for the festivities to wind down, I began Isabel Allende's recent memoir, At 2:20 I turned off the light and let the Chilean summer air ease me to sleep.

Russia's leaders are furious at their country's Olympic performance. But they're blaming the wrong people, and so they're going to fail again in Sochi.

As China's mandarins meet to discuss their future, a rogue bureaucrat is testing the limits of reform.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the former U.N. nuclear inspector, thinks he can unify Egypt's fractured, demoralized opposition. But he might make things even worse.

American military efforts in the village of Nawa, in Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province, are often cited by leaders as a model of what a properly resourced counterinsurgency campaign can achieve. Last July a battalion of Marines swooped in, and although the village had been solidly under Taliban control, U.S. troops transformed the place. Deployed in a one-man-to-50-villagers ratio, they took off their body armor, patrolled on foot, drank endless cups of green tea with elders, and funded small-scale reconstruction projects. By October IED attacks were down 90 percent, and Nawa had become Gen. Stanley McChrystal's "No. 1 petri dish," an aide told the press. In his recent blistering report about the failures of military intelligence in Afghani-stan, Gen. Michael Flynn praised the Marines in Nawa for developing one of the only truly effective information-gathering networks in the country.

Something that looks an awful lot like democracy is beginning to take hold in Iraq. It may not be 'mission accomplished'—but it's a start.

It says a lot about the kind of place Russia has become that just two minutes of mild mockery of the Kremlin could cause a political shock wave. But sure enough: when the state-controlled Channel One showed a short cartoon in January depicting Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President

Terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba is now focusing on foreigners and the West.