HAASS SPEECH: Council President Richard N. Haass discusses the challenges facing the Middle East in remarks given at the inauguration of the Arthur Schneier Center for International Affairs at Yeshiva University. Transcript MUTUAL FUNDS: Benn Steil, at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee, outlines reforms to protect mutual fund investors from abuses associated with so-called soft-dollar trading. Testimony BESTSELLERS: Foreign Affairs introduces a monthly ranking of the 15 top-selling books on U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. Press release SOUTH AFRICA: Despite extreme poverty, South Africa is a model of democracy and capitalism in the developing world, says Max Boot in the Los Angeles Times. IRAQ: The war in Iraq underscores the limitations of the Bush revolution in foreign policy, say the Council's James Lindsay and Brookings' Ivo Daalder in the Canadian edition of Time. IRAQ: Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.) tells a Council meeting, "When President Bush labeled Iraq the next front in the war on terror, it was a self-fulfilling declaration." Transcript U.S.-EUROPE REPORT: The transatlantic alliance remains vital to the United States and Europe in the post-9/11 world, concludes the Kissinger/Summers independent task force sponsored by the Council. Report | Transcript IRAQ REPORT: Election year politics should not jeopardize U.S. commitment to security and reconstruction in Iraq, say Council independent task force co-chairs James Schlesinger and Thomas Pickering in the Los Angeles Times. Task force report | Meeting transcript EUROPEAN INTEGRATION: The vision for a Europe whole and free has stalled at the border of the former Soviet Union, says James M. Goldgeier in The Washington Post. BALKANS: The administration's neglect of the Balkans has created a tinderbox in Kosovo, where frustration and anger now run the risk of spiraling out of control, says David Phillips in the Los Angeles Times. OUTSOURCING: Alarm over sending U.S. jobs overseas is misguided. The practice provides more benefits than costs, argues Daniel W. Drezner in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs. Outsourcing Q&A