MIDDLE EAST
March 13, 2013
"History Will Judge Bush on Iraq War"
Op-Ed, China Daily
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"Truman biographer David McCullough warns that about 50 years must pass before historians can really appraise a presidency. But one decade after Truman left office, the Marshall Plan and the NATO alliance were already seen as solid accomplishments. Bush lacks comparable successes to compensate for his mismanagement of Iraq."
March 13, 2013
"Proceed With Caution"
Op-Ed, American Interest
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"Circumstances do not call for passivity, for doing nothing. They do call for sober consideration of diplomatic reality; the peace process cannot afford another failure.... Moreover, American diplomatic capital is a finite resource and should not be risked unless the prospects of success are significant."
March 12, 2013
"Judge Islamists by Performance, Not Piety"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
Rami Khouri asks and answers the following questions: "Are Islamist groups gaining or losing popularity in different Arab countries? Are Islamists of all varieties better at governing with a legitimate electoral mandate, or better at being opposition groups that only serve their narrow constituencies with a variety of social services and organized piety? Do Islamists necessarily do well when engaged in armed resistance to a foreign occupier or a domestic autocrat, and less well when they stop fighting and take on the responsibilities of governing?"
March 12, 2013
Revolution, Islamism and Jihadism in North Africa
News
An audio recording of a conversation with Jean-Pierre Filiu, Professor of Middle East Studies at Sciences Po, at the Middle East Initiative on March 5, 2013.
March 11, 2013
Libya: A Year of Revolution and State-Building
News
An audio recording of a conversation with Dirk Vandewalle, Associate Professor of Government, Dartmouth College, and author, A History of Modern Libya, on February 25, 2013 at the Middle East Initiative.
March 7, 2013
"Whatever Happened to Egypt's Democratic Transition?"
Op-Ed, Jadaliyya
What, we are impelled to ask, went wrong in Egypt? What made it, one analyst is reported to have said, the stupidest transition ever or the revolution that never was? Or did the fault lie not in our Egypt but our selves? Not least in our inability to recognize that the complicated and confusing period, lasting a decade or more, between the first observation of revolutionary upheaval and its conclusion, is both more important and more uncertain than we feel comfortable with.
March 6, 2013
"With Iran Posed to be a Regional Player, US Should Find Ways to Repair Relations"
Op-Ed, GlobalPost
By Tytti Erästö, Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom
"The problem is that, from an Iranian perspective, recent offers fail to suggest that the zero enrichment demand would not be reasserted; sanctions continue to be based on it and the P5+1 continue to refuse to recognize Iran's right to enrichment. The resulting vagueness about end goals is reinforced by the absence of any apparent intention to lift the tightening Western sanctions as part of a potential nuclear deal."
March 4, 2013
"US Should Focus Aid on Syrian Refugees"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"...[E]veryone will be better off in the interim if the United States can help keep Syrian refugees from destabilizing the region. That means steering our humanitarian assistance towards temporary relief, providing public safety and emergency resources to the host nations, and enforcing promises made by Arab neighbors and the international community to provide financial support for the refugees."
March 1, 2013
"U.S. Policy on Syria is Naive and Counterproductive"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
"The big question people here ask is whether the United States should provide military aid to help the Syrian rebels improve their chances of defeating and overthrowing the Assad family regime. The hesitance of the Obama administration to do this (beyond the military training that is widely assumed to be underway in Jordan) is a classic example of why American foreign policy in the Middle East is so erratic, often leading to the growth of groups that feed off anti-American sentiments."
March 1, 2013
"My Neighbourhood" Panel Discussion
News
An audio recording of the panel discussion following a screening of Just Vision's documentary short, "My Neighbourhood" on February 20, 2013.
