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On May 9, Mahmoud Salem addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. Mr. Salem, a renowned Egyptian blogger better known as "Sandmonkey," is a longtime analyst of Egyptian political affairs and advocate for free speech and democracy. He ran as a parliamentary candidate last year on the ticket of the Free Egyptians Party. The following is a rapporteur's summary of his remarks.

Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough believes that the relationship between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is “workmanlike” and enables the two leaders to immediately address the important issues on their agendas. Speaking to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Weinberg Founders Conference, McDonough stated that

Ambassador Robert Blackwill, Ambassador Dennis Ross and Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin (IDF, ret.) said that Israel remains an important strategic asset for the United States. “The U.S. and Israel share key vital interests in a fast-changing region with multiple dangers and threats to both,” Ross said during a plenary session

Counterterrorism experts Juan Zarate and Peter L. Bergen agreed that the nature of the war on terror has fundamentally shifted from the manner in which the U.S. strategically and tactically approached efforts against al-Qaeda after 9/11. “No politician is going to say it’s over, but people in our position maintain

Experts tied to the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush agreed that preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons should be American foreign policy and that an Israeli military strike against the country’s nuclear facilities is inadvisable this year. Speaking to The Washington Institute’s Weinberg Founders Conference, Colin

Does the United States have a moral obligation to intervene militarily in Syria and, if so, when? That was question when three experts—Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Fouad Ajami, T, Washington bureau chief Peter David, and former U.S. envoy to Syria Ambassador Theodore Kattouf—addressed the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s

From May 4, through Sunday noon, May 6, The Washington Institute explored the full range of Middle East policy challenges at the 2012 Weinberg Founders Conference, which brought together policymakers, diplomats, journalists, experts, and private citizens for a lively weekend of discussion and debate. Watch plenary sessions of the conference

If Iran gets nuclear weapons, will other Middle East states want them too? In a bloggingheads.tv conversation, Matt Duss and Michael Singh explore the issues.

On April 10, 2012, Jeffrey White and Andrew Exum addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. Mr. White, a defense fellow at the Institute, previously completed a thirty-four-year career with the Defense Intelligence Agency, serving in a wide variety of senior analytical and leadership positions. Mr. Exum, a senior

On April 5, 2012, His Excellency Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. The following is a rapporteur's summary of his remarks. IRAQ'S INTERNAL POLITICAL CRISIS AND U.S. POLICY Despite a budding national political crisis originating from the consolidation of

On March 27, 2012, Robert Satloff, Andrew J. Tabler, and Simon Henderson addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. Dr. Satloff, the Institute's executive director and Howard P. Berkowitz chair in U.S. Middle East policy, had just returned from Israel and Jordan. Mr. Tabler, the Institute's Next Generation fellow

On January 17, 2012, Stanley Greenberg and Susan Glasser addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. Mr. Greenberg, the chairman and CEO of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, has served as polling advisor to an array of world leaders, including Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Tony Blair, Nelson Mandela, and Ehud Barak

Much of the rhetoric surrounding the Iranian nuclear impasse has been marked by Tehran's staunch refusal to budge and pessimism among Western analysts that increasingly strong diplomatic and economic measures will ever have their desired effect. Yet several avenues for progress have opened up amid an environment of incrementally effective

The past two-and-a-half years have witnessed a string of failed efforts to launch substantive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and, more recently, heated controversy surrounding President Obama's baseline formula for compromise. This sad story reflects, among other things, the deep divide between the two sides on the supposedly "easier" issues of territory and

On December 16, Mitchell D. Silber, NYPD Director of Intelligence Analysis, addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute to discuss his new book, The Al Qaeda Factor (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). Silber examines sixteen Al-Qaeda-associated attacks launched against Western interests since 1993 and identifies potential points of vulnerability

Two heroes of the campaign for freedom and human rights in the Middle East -- Natan Sharansky of Israel and Saad Eddin Ibrahim of Egypt -- jointly received the Washington Institute's Scholar-Statesman Award at a benefit dinner in Manhattan on December 5, 2011.

Watch a senior Treasury Department official's discussion of his department's response to the Middle East revolutions of 2011.

On November 16, 2011, Ehud Yaari and Normand St. Pierre addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. Mr. Yaari is a Lafer international fellow with the Institute and a Middle East commentator for Israel's Channel Two television. Col. St. Pierre, a thirty-one-year veteran of the U.S. Army, retired recently

Watch a special Policy Forum presentation on the State Department's proactive efforts to counter the radicalization campaigns that feed violent extremism.

On November 8, 2011, Khalil Shikaki and Shai Feldman addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. Dr. Shikaki, a senior fellow with the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, has directed the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah since 2000. Dr. Feldman is