2011 has been a year of sweeping changes in leadership worldwide. The Arab Spring meant the end of decades-long dictatorships across the middle east, and now threats of default have forced Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign. As the European debt crisis continues to unfold, more changes--including a shift which countries step up to deal with these problems--are assuredly ahead.

On Wednesday evening President Obama will unveil his exit strategy from Afghanistan. We’ll hear exactly how many of our troops will be coming home and when the U.S. military will hand over power to Afghan security forces. This comes nearly a decade after the first U.S. military campaign against Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. There has been mounting political pressure on the president to instigate a significant withdrawal and many people are hoping this marks the closing chapter of the War in Afghanistan. 

Although the role of the United States in Libya differs from its role in Iraq and Afghanistan, the intervention does resemble many other modern conflicts. Think back to the Gulf War and the Balkan wars throughout the 1990s. What can we learn from America's diplomatic and military strategy during those conflicts that might be relevant for our intervention in Libya? Joining us to analyze the position of the U.S. in Libya is Leslie Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.

This is the fourth edition of Wave of Change, a special podcast from The Takeaway, covering the mass protests in Egypt and the consequences for the wider Arab world, hosted by John Hockenberry with Celeste Headlee.

This is the third edition of Wave of Change, a new special podcast from The Takeaway, covering the mass protests in Egypt and their consequences for the wider Arab world, hosted by John Hockenberry with Celeste Headlee.

In today's episode, we get the latest analysis with Samer Sheheta, professor of Arab politics at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University; we speak with a 25-year-old anti-Mubarak protester who was kept home by violence, but is eager to return; Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, calls for "common sense" in America's foreign policy; and, a Takeaway from this morning's show with one Egyptian who is satisfied with Mubarak's pledge to step down.

First Lady Michelle Obama visited Fort Bragg in North Carolina yesterday and asked people to embrace the military families in their communities. With an expected surge in U.S. forces to Afghanistan later this year—approximately 17,000 new troops will be deployed there—her message comes at an important time.

In the op-ed piece, How to Leave Afghanistan from the New York Times, Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. says the U.S. should pull out of Afghanistan altogether.