May 1, 2013  |   Barbed wire outside the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. Photos by Daniel Sagalyn. Last month, I was one of 10 U.S. journalists visiting Pakistan on a reporting trip sponsored by the East-West Center, a Hawaii-based organization that promotes...

April 19, 2013  |   Election sign for Imran Khan who heads the party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. The former cricket champion-turned-politician casts himself as an anti-corruption crusader. Photo by Daniel Sagalyn. If everything goes according to plan, Pakistan’s election on May 11 will be the...

December 21, 2012  |   The North Korean military band celebrates the North’s rocket launch on Dec. 12 in Pyongyang. Photo by KCNA via Reuters. Following a presidential election in South Korea this week, a number of analysts are saying North Korea is likely...

November 5, 2012  |   A member of the 8th Security Police Squadron is silhouetted against the sky as he holds a Stinger anti-aircraft guided missile. Photo by USAF. With the Syrian civil war seemingly locked in stalemate as the violence enters its 20th...

October 15, 2012  |   Below the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, one of the aircraft carriers that participated in the mine hunting exercise in September. Photo by Dan Sagalyn A major international naval exercise last month in and around the Persian Gulf and...

September 28, 2012  |   Navy divers use MH-53 helicopters, like this one on board the USS Ponce, to hunt for mines in the Persian Gulf. Photo by Dan Sagalyn/PBS NewHour PERSIAN GULF — One of the biggest challenges hunting for mines in the Persian...

September 20, 2012  |   USS ENTERPRISE, North Arabian Sea | The U.S. Navy is vowing to keep commercial sea lanes open in the international waters off Iran, despite a view among a small number of critics that Washington’s military muscle may inadvertently stoke...

September 16, 2012  |   KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait | The United States, along with more than 27 other countries from four different continents, began Sunday the largest ever military exercise aimed at practicing how to find and destroy sea mines in the waters of the...

August 29, 2012  |   When the Army released data earlier this month showing that suicides had spiked to an all-time high, Tom Mahany decided he had to do something to focus more attention on the issue. He went on a...

July 11, 2012  |   Afghan workers carry a montage of photographs through a renovated park in Kabul on May 10, 2012. Photo by Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images. An international donors’ conference in Tokyo over the weekend highlighted the continued demands on Afghanistan to end...

June 26, 2012  |   In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama promised to make Afghanistan a top priority. A month after his inauguration, the new president agreed to the military's request for a troop surge, adding 17,000 to the 36,000 American forces already there. Ten months...

June 2, 2012  |   This week's horrific violence in Syria may have nudged Russia a little bit closer to opposing the Bashar al-Assad regime's continued claim to power there, according to analysts who have recently visited Russia. Last week's massacre in Houla, which resulted...

May 10, 2012  |   PHILADELPHIA | A key leader in the psychiatric community has rejected the idea of altering the name of a traumatic condition affecting an estimated tens of thousands of U.S. combat veterans -- a move that effectively blocks growing efforts...

April 30, 2012  |   Chinese guards march outside the U.S. embassy compound in Beijing. Photo by Goh Chai Hin/AFP/Getty Images. The whereabouts of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng remain unclear Monday. He escaped house arrest in his village last week and reportedly sought asylum...

January 27, 2012  |   One of the Senate's leading hard-liners on Myanmar, Sen. Mitchell McConnell, R-Ky., told NewsHour Capitol Hill Correspondent Kwame Holman that he is very hopeful about the political reforms that are now underway in that country. McConnell,...

October 13, 2011  |   President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met Thursday at the White House and celebrated Congress' passage of the trade deal between the two countries that has been in the works for many years....

September 20, 2011  |   As of Tuesday, gay troops will no longer have to hide their sexual orientation for fear of being drummed out of the military. Six months ago, President Obama repealed the law that forbid gays from openly...

September 7, 2011  |   For Thomas Heidenberger, the emotional scars are still fresh. His wife, Michele, was the lead flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 77, which flew into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. During a recent media event...

July 14, 2011  |   Photo by Getty Images Despite recent statements from top Obama administration civilians and military brass that progress is being made in Afghanistan, the United Nations reported Thursday that "civilians experienced a downward spiral in protection" in the first six...

March 23, 2011  |   The retired Army general who was a major advocate of the Iraq troop surge in 2007 says some U.S. ground forces may be needed to help counter troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi who are killing civilians in the Libya...

March 19, 2011  |   USS Barry launches a Tomahawk missile -- one of about 110 cruise missiles fired from U.S. and British ships and submarines targetting radar and anti-aircraft sites along Libya's Mediterranean coast. Updated...

March 11, 2011  |   For decades, the U.S. military has worked to create a force that mirrors the racial and ethnic diversity of the American population. Now, a congressionally charted commission has reported that while the Pentagon has achieved that goal in the...

February 16, 2011  |   As Defense Secretary Robert Gates appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday to begin pushing for the Obama administration's defense budget, the Pentagon's spending plans were already taking flak from the political left and right. One side says proposed cuts are not...

November 5, 2010  |   President Obama embarked Friday morning on a 10-day trip to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. He plans to meet with world leaders, participate in the G-20 and APEC economic summits, and give a speech on U.S. outreach to...

September 23, 2010  |   Gay rights advocates are regrouping after the Senate on Tuesday voted down legislation that would have allowed gays to serve openly in the military, and are uncertain about the prospects for turning the vote around during a lame-duck session of...

September 16, 2010  |   Updated at 1:15 p.m. The arms reduction, or New START, treaty passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday by a 14-4 vote, but it is still unclear whether the full Senate will vote on the measure this year. The Senate...

August 4, 2010  |   The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which originally planned to take up the nuclear arms control -- or New START -- treaty on Wednesday, decided to postpone a vote until after Congress' August recess. In April, President Barack Obama and Russian...

June 15, 2010  |   Pakistan's tribal areas. Graphic by Michael Harry. Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan is a rugged, mountainous area that has attracted militants and insurgents -- and become a target for Pakistani military operations and U.S. drone attacks. A number of...

December 8, 2009  |   The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan and the ambassador made sure there was no difference seen between them as they spoke in public for the first time since President Obama announced his decision last week to send another 30,000...

December 7, 2009  |   The Pentagon announced today which military forces will deploy to Afghanistan as part of the troop buildup President Obama announced last week at West Point. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the first batch of troops would include 1,500 Marines from...