Program Related Publication Feeds

Middle East Notes and Comment: Monsters, Inc.

Thu, 25 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0400

It’s not hard to find Americans who want a victory over the Islamic state. The hard part is finding any with a good sense of what victory would look like. The late Justice Potter Stewart’s famous description of hard-core pornography, “I know it when I see it,” isn’t very helpful.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Popular Authoritarians

Tue, 26 May 2015 00:00:00 -0400

Dictators often go to extraordinary means to project an image of popularity. Bussed-in mobs wave flags and sing songs praising the leadership, and when sham elections are held, something like 98.7 percent of voters dutifully vote for the president. No one doubts the consequences of genuine opposition—imprisonment, assault, or worse.

Middle East Notes and Comment: To Fight Jihadi Violence, End the Wars

Fri, 20 Feb 2015 00:00:00 -0500

The spread of jihadi violence in the Arab world is as obvious as it is painful. Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya all have groups that use the slogans and symbols of Islam to recruit, to radicalize, and to justify violent campaigns against the status quo.

Middle East Notes and Comment: The Other Side of Low Oil Prices

rshirazi — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 00:00:00 -0500

American consumers have celebrated the sharp drop in oil prices. In recent weeks, gasoline prices in many American communities have brushed against $2 per gallon, promising to put more than $500 annually into the pockets of the average American family.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Radicalism Four Years into the "Arab Spring"

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 00:00:00 -0500

While many observers of the Arab world had believed for years that change was inevitable, the “Arab Spring” itself came as a complete surprise four years ago. The idea that a self-immolating fruit seller in Tunisia could shake the political foundations of the Arab world to their core would have been thought ludicrous even in early January 2011.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Rethinking Strategy toward the Islamic State

Wed, 17 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0400

After trying hard to downplay policy in Syria and Iraq, the Obama White House has dived in. The recorded beheadings of two Americans seem to have crystalized a whole new policy approach, creating an open-ended U.S. military commitment against the so-called “Islamic State.” While the new U.S. policy is more than merely a military strategy, it is much more military than it should be.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Hoping for Trouble in Iraq

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0400

Few in the United States take much pleasure in what has happened in Iraq in recent days. Many in the Middle East do. Until Western governments understand Middle Eastern governments’ motivations better, they won’t have much influence on the violence unfolding in Iraq.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Why Syria Matters

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Notably missing from two weeks of intensive U.S. discussion about striking Syria is why Syria might be strategically important to the United States.

Middle East Notes and Comment: The Age of Proxy Wars

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

As revolutions swept the Middle East in 2011, many saw it as the dawn of an age of democratization. More recently, many have begun to see it as an age of Islamicization. It is more accurate, however, to see the region entering an age of proxy wars, on a scale that is likely to dwarf the Arab Cold War that pitted Saudi Arabia against Egypt in the 1950s and 1960s.

Middle East Notes and Comment: A Tale of Two Crises

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Syria and Egypt present very different challenges for U.S. policy. One is in the violent throes of revolution, and the other is sorting out the aftermath of one. One has the United States exerting influence from outside its borders, and the other has a strong and diverse U.S. presence inside. Perhaps most confoundingly, one seems to be the object of too much U.S.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Iran After Asad

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Iran is already contemplating a future without Bashar al-Asad. It is not as much good news for the United States as many would hope.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Getting Syria Right

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

It has been a bad year for Middle Eastern dictators. Several have lost power or died trying to keep it, despite efforts to avoid a common fate.

Getting Syria Right

sherry — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

It has been a bad year for Middle Eastern dictators. Several have lost power or died trying to keep it, despite efforts to avoid a common fate.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Allies at Odds

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The United States is used to looking for trouble from its enemies, but a growing set of problems will emerge from its allies. In the eastern Mediterranean, three U.S. allies are increasingly at loggerheads, and the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Value Investing

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Hedge funds have had their day. Following years in which audacious bets paid off handsomely, the financial markets have tanked. The Bush administration has made similar bets in the Middle East, and it has left similar wreckage. Now many investment professionals are returning to the fundamentals: solid analysis, sustained investment, and modest expectations.

Middle East Notes and Comment: The Next Iraq Problem

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Iraq’s refugees tell heartbreaking accounts of suffering, displacement, and shattered dreams, but these refugees represent more than mere human interest stories. Collectively, the outpouring of millions of Iraqi refugees into a very small number of neighboring countries poses a dramatic security threat to the Middle East, and there is no sign that threat is going away.

Middle East Notes and Comment: The Silent Treatment

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Of the 79 recommendations of the Iraq Study Group report that came out recently, the one that got the most attention—even before the report’s release — was the recommendation that the U.S. government talk with Iran and Syria.