In The News

Iran Frustrated Attempting to Take Charge of Arab Rising

Jamsheed K. Choksy December 13, 2011
When the Arab uprisings began, Iran was delighted. Iranian leaders claimed credit, suggesting their 1979 revolution inspired the revolutionary spirit sweeping the region – even though Iran repressed its own election protesters in summer of 2009. Young adults who galvanized protests did not risk all to overthrow autocratic leaders in favor of controlling fundamentalists. New leaders cautiously...

Conciliatory Tones From Egypt’s Islamist Leaders

Jackson Diehl December 7, 2011
Islamist candidates have surged in Egypt’s elections, but Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post cautions against regarding all Islamists as one and the same. Yes, the Muslim Brotherhood, banned by the Mubarak regime, has a history of violence. Yet many of the Brotherhood’s Islamists have abandoned violence in favor of democratic reforms, argues Jackson Diehl in an opinion essay for the Washington...

Toppling of Libyan Dictator Legitimizes R2P Doctrine

Bennett Ramberg November 29, 2011
The war in Libya broke new ground, lending support for the international community to take a strong stand against dictators who threaten their own people. Bennett Ramberg, formerly with the US State Department, analyzes recent wars and how intervention in Libya compares. After horrific massacres in Rwanda and Srebrenica, the Canadian government took the lead in 2001, convening diplomats in...

Why Did the Arab League Tyrants’ Club Finally Turn on Syria?

Shashank Joshi November 22, 2011
Member states of the Arab League are notorious for harsh treatment of their citizens and nonchalance about neighbors. But greater concern about regional stability and its effect on their own power have transformed attitudes. In March the league supported Western intervention in Libya and in November voted to suspend Syria for its relentless crackdowns on protesters. Civil war in Syria would be...

The Arab Past Meeting the Arab Future

David Ignatius November 17, 2011
The Middle East could be transformed if the Palestinian group Hamas renounced violence, accepted Israel’s right to exist and supported the past commitments of the Palestinian Authority, writes David Ignatius for the Daily Star. Ignatius lists several recent events, including Hamas’ support for Syria’s opposition movement and its ongoing dialogue with Egyptian officials, that signal the group is...

World Anxious as Iran Inches Toward Nuclear Bomb

Leonard S. Spector November 14, 2011
As the international community seeks ways to reduce nuclear weapons, the few nations that defy this common goal are targets for ire, monitoring, and escalating sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported evidence that Iran is continuing to build the technical skills required for producing nuclear weapons and accumulating stocks of partially enriched uranium. Nonproliferation...

The Land of Gas and Honey

Robin M. Mills October 27, 2011
The discovery of two huge natural gas fields, Tamar and Leviathan, off Israel’s coast promises energy security for the nation at a time when its Egyptian gas deal is under risk and its current largest field, Mari-B, nears depletion. But like other gas fields around the globe, these stretch along waters that belong to feuding countries. Israel’s two fields overlap a bit with waters off Lebanon,...