Two years ago on May 19, President Obama called for a new chapter in American diplomacy, promising to make it a top priority to support democracy and human rights in a changing Middle East. Some experts say that the U.S. has failed to live up to that commitment in places like Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. The conflict in Syria has also opened a darker chapter in the Arab uprisings.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets President Obama at the White House on Thursday. Their talks will focus on the Syrian conflict. Erdogan has been pushing the U.S. to do more to resolve a conflict.

British Prime Minister David Cameron met with President Obama at the White House on Monday with Syria high on their agenda. Cameron came to Washington after talks in Russia with President Vladimir Putin that he described as "extremely positive and good."

Secretary of State John Kerry has been in office for less than three months and as he travels the globe, his priorities are becoming clearer. He's trying to find a diplomatic solution to the Syrian crisis, revive Israeli Palestinian talks and convince China to use its influence with North Korea to resolve that issue diplomatically.

Secretary of State Kerry met with Russian leaders in Moscow on Tuesday in another attempt to forge a consensus on Syria.

Secretary of State John Kerry sets off for what he calls "a long overdue" trip to Russia on Monday, and Syria is likely to top the agenda. But U.S.-Russian relations are frosty these days. The U.S. is imposing targeted sanctions on Russian human rights violators, while Moscow is preventing American families from adopting Russian children.

The head of the U.N. refugee agency says aid workers are not at all prepared for the possibility of chemical warfare in Syria. That's just one of the concerns aid workers have in what they call the worst humanitarian disaster in recent decades. Eight thousand Syrians are fleeing every day and the world has focused much more on planning for the day after Bashar al-Assad is toppled rather than on dealing with the humanitarian catastrophes of today.

The tiny Gulf nation of Qatar has been "punching above its weight" diplomatically in the region in recent years. Now, it's taking a prominent role in Syria, arming rebels there. The U.S. wants to see such aid go to moderates. Qatar has its own approach.

Officials from France, Britain and Israel claim chemical weapons have been used in Syria. President Obama has warned Syria that the use of chemical weapons would be a red line. U.S. officials say they are looking into the latest allegations of chemical-weapons use but have not come to the same conclusions that others have.

The U.S. and Russia have been at odds over many issues, but the fact that the suspects in the Boston bombing are ethnic Chechens might bring Moscow and Washington closer together at least when it comes to Russia's troubled Caucasus region.

In the coming weeks, the Obama administration will ply host to the leaders of several Middle Eastern nations. They are coming, in part, to register their concerns about the ongoing violence in Syria and to nudge the Obama administration to do more to tip the balance in favor of the rebels trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Secretary of State John Kerry met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other top officials in Kabul on Monday. As Kerry arrived, the U.S. handed over control of the Bagram prison to the Afghan government, resolving a long-standing dispute between Washington and Kabul.

Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan Monday. He's trying to smooth over the latest disputes with President Hamid Karzai.

Secretary of State John Kerry has been putting his diplomatic skills to the test as he deals with some of America's difficult partners. Kerry spent Sunday in Baghdad, where he's tried to nudge the Iraqi government to stop letting Iran use Iraqi airspace to send weapons into Syria.

A decade ago, as the U.S. led an intervention to Iraq, France stood on the sidelines and members of Congress were so furious that they renamed French fries in the cafeteria as freedom fries. Ten years later, some lawmakers are urging the U.S. to follow the French lead in Syria. France, along with Britain, says it's time to arm the Syrian rebels and tip the military balance to force President Bashar al-Assad out of power. France has also taken a leading role in recent years in Libya, Mali and even on Iran.

The U.N. Security Council agreed to tighten sanctions against North Korea on Thursday as punishment for its recent nuclear test. The Council's unanimous agreement came after three weeks of negotiation between the U.S. and China, which has opposed such measures in the past. North Korea was furious at the U.N. action, issuing a threat to attack the U.S. with nuclear weapons as the sanctions came up for a vote.

John Kerry's first trip as secretary of state took him to Europe — where he spent time growing up as the son of a diplomat. Kerry, who also had stops in the Middle East, says he can't speak as freely now as when he was a senator.

One dominant theme of the trip will be how to resolve the crisis in Syria, where an estimated 70,000 people have been killed over the past two years. Kerry is portraying his first trip as secretary of state as a listening tour, and he certainly expects to hear a lot about Syria.

The Americans and the Russians have been at odds over Syria since the fighting began 20 months ago. But there's a sense of urgency now as the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad looks increasingly unstable.

Leading Republican senators are vowing to block U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice from becoming secretary of state if President Obama nominates her. They are hammering her for the way she characterized the attack on the U.N. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Obama says the criticisms are "outrageous."