Heading into a new year, President Obama is juggling two unpredictable wars, a pair of rulers eager to realize their nuclear ambitions, a rising China and a scarred global economy, among other international challenges. He also faces an early referendum on his presidency with the 2010 midterm congressional elections.
Here's a look at what might top Obama's overseas to-do list in 2010:
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Afghan forces keep watch at the site of a bomb blast near a guesthouse in Kabul on Dec. 15.
Majid Saeedi / Getty Images
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Army Sgt. Donald Lewis of the 1st Cavalry Division is greeted by his wife, Nicole Lewis, after his brigade arrived home from a year of deployment in Iraq on Nov. 10 in Fort Hood, Texas.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
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Protesters gather at an anti-Iran rally outside U.N. headquarters as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses the General Assembly in September.
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A giant portrait of Mao Zedong is carried during National Day celebrations in Beijing in October.
Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images
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Detainees stand during an early morning Islamic prayer at the U.S. military prison for "enemy combatants" in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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Cuba's President Raul Castro (far right), Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura and Revolutionary Commander Ramiro Valdes attend a rally in July.
Javier Galeano / Associated Press
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A Pakistani soldier stands guard near a bomb blast site in the outskirts of Peshawar on Dec. 3.
A Majeed / AFP/Getty Images
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"Top-hat iceberg" in Antarctica.
Jason Orfanon / NPR
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Chinese investors monitor screens showing stock indexes at a trading house in Shanghai.
Philippe Lopez / AFP/Getty Images
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A homeless man is reflected in the window of an empty showroom of a closed General Motors dealership in Nashville, Tenn.
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