In The News

The Al Qaeda Menace in Africa

Bruce Riedel January 21, 2013
Throughout 2011, protests that came to be known as the Arab Spring swept through Northern Africa and the Middle East. NATO stepped in on the Libyan protests, restricted to civilian protection. But the US gave a nod to Qatar sending machine guns, ammunition to rebels in the Libyan rebels; France provided guns and grenades, too. Because of looting and trade, weapons intended for rebels and civilian...

The Jihadist Eruption

Shiraz Maher January 18, 2013
The Arab Spring has triggered unrest among competing ethnic groups in Northern Africa, the latest manifestation of which is the taking of 40 gas-plant employees taken hostages in eastern Algeria. The captors blamed French military intervention in nearby Mali. But Shiraz Maher, writing for the Wall Street Journal, explains animosity in the region lingers after NATO forces assisted Libyan rebels in...

Two Diverging Roads for Afghanistan

Thomas Barfield January 11, 2013
US President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai are meeting throughout the day at the White House, developing specifics on troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the US role in the region. Afghanistan faces two futures. “The direction depends on whether Afghanistan breaks its longstanding lack of economic integration with the outside world,” suggests Thomas Barfield, Afghanistan...

Turkey Can’t Afford Over-Involvement in Syria

Mohammed Ayoob December 17, 2012
Turkey has enjoyed enormous economic success over the past decade, and is now ranked as the world’s 16th largest economy. At the same time, the government has steered an independent foreign policy course under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, maintaining security ties with the US through NATO, supporting protesters throughout the Arab Spring regime changes...

Gaza: Old Struggle, New Realities

Rami G. Khouri November 23, 2012
The Islamist-led government of Egypt has brokered a truce to end the fierce fighting and exchange of rocket fire between Gaza and Israel. Israel was poised for a ground invasion, but that’s on hold for now. The events reveal old, failed patterns in the Middle East and a seemingly endless conflict that’s has long instigated regional bitterness, determination and extremism, writes Rami G. Khouri,...

Sudan Blames Israel for Khartoum Arms Factory Blast

October 26, 2012
Factions in the Middle East may be waging shadow wars in neighboring countries. The BBC News reports that Sudan officials are blaming Israel for blasting an arms factory in Khartoum and notes that “a bitter secret war has been going on for a number of years between Israel and Hamas, with Sudan apparently very much one of the battlegrounds.” Sudan officials said the factory made traditional arms....

A Forgotten War in the Himalayas

Jeff M. Smith September 14, 2012
Leaders around the world and Americans, too, fret about whether the United States is a reliable or fickle ally. As the US pivots toward Asia and Indian leaders toy with a return to a policy of nonalignment, people of both nations should recall the 1962 Sino-Indian War, suggests Jeff M. Smith, Kraemer Strategy Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. India and China had good “brotherly”...