On November 12, the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) elected Kazakhstan for the first time to the UN Human Rights Council, for the 2013–2015 term, with 183 of 193 member states voting affirmatively. Various international human rights groups openly lobbied against the election of several countries, including Kazakhstan, but their campaigns proved ineffective. Kazakhstan received the fifth highest vote total of the 20 candidates competing for the 18 available seats for this round. READ MORE

This week China’s ruling elite appoints new leaders for the next decade. The incoming president, Xi Jinping, and his colleagues face such fearsome challenges that, in their moment of victory, one almost sympathizes. Understanding their difficulties and calibrating U.S. policy accordingly will be among the biggest tests for the new Obama administration. For everybody’s sake, Beijing and Washington both need to do some rethinking. READ MORE

The Governments of Afghanistan and the U.S. officially launched their negotiations on a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that will determine how many American military personnel stay in Afghanistan after 2014, according to the U.S. Department of State. READ MORE

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the United States supports the deployment of Patriot missiles along Turkey's border with Syria. READ MORE

Horst Teltschik, the former national security advisor to Chancellor Helmut Kohl and former chair of the Munich Security Council, sees a need for action in Germany following Obama's re-election. READ MORE

Food insecurity still blights some areas of the world. But the main problem is not the overall amount of food. It is its correct distribution. Just changing this could save millions of lives and reduce conflict. READ MORE