Policy Analysis

On July 31, according to Iran's semiofficial Mehr News Agency, presidential chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashai claimed that the West had raised no objections to President Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad's open proclamation that the Islamic Republic could build a nuclear bomb. How should this surprising claim be interpreted? And what implications

There has been speculation about where Turkey is heading ever since the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. The early years suggested to most observers that Turkey was heading West, as the AKP lobbied hard for membership in the European Union, and pushed the liberal-democratic

How and why do conspiracy theories spread in Turkey? Recent developments are a case in point, demonstrating the role of government rhetoric in spreading such theories, as well as anti-Western sentiments. Lately, Turkey has experienced a spike in Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, terror attacks, resulting in more than 50

Adapted from remarks given at the Nixon Center debate "Israel: Asset or Liability?" with Chas Freeman on July 20. Read the Jerusalem Post's summary of Ambassador Freeman's remarks. See comprehensive coverage of the debate, including complete video. I don't think there is anyone who would disagree with the contention that

Over the past two months, Turkey has experienced a spike in terrorist attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), resulting in more than fifty deaths. The increased violence -- coming after a relative lull in such attacks -- has touched raw nerves among the population. As a result, the issue

Soner Cagaptay, a senior fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on July 28, 2010. The following is an excerpt from his prepared remarks. "...The AKP has made a 180-degree turn in Turkey's Middle East policy, moving

In this analysis from the German Marshall Fund's Mediterranean Paper Series 2010, Scott Carpenter explores recent economic and political developments in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia, and the mechanisms by which the transatlantic community has sought to channel social, political, and economic change in them -- for both good and

On June 10, when the Iranian opposition movement cancelled its planned commemoration of the anniversary of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection, commentators assumed that the Green Movement was finally finished. For months, it had been criticized as lacking strong leadership and for being unable to seriously challenge Iran's entrenched regime. But

The foreign policy team of US President Barack Obama is undertaking a reassessment of its policy all over the Middle East, including Israel. No one has made or will make a public declaration about such a change, but a reassessment is nonetheless under way, and we can already detect the

On July 13, 2010, Christopher Boucek addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute, along with April Longley Alley and Barak Salmoni. Dr. Boucek, an associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discussed al-Qaeda's activities and affiliates in Yemen. The following is a rapporteur's summary of his

On July 20, 2010, the Nixon Center sponsored a debate between Washington Institute executive director Robert Satloff and former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman on the question of whether Israel is an asset or liability to U.S. strategic interests. According to Dr. Satloff, a cost-benefit analysis of the

On July 13, 2010, Barak Salmoni, along with Christopher Boucek and April Longley Alley, addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute. Author of the recent study Regime and Periphery in Northern Yemen: The Huthi Phenomenon, Dr. Salmoni has served as a political scientist at the RAND National

On July 13, 2010, April Longley Alley, along with Barak Salmoni and Christopher Boucek, addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute. A research associate at the National Defense University's Center for Applied Strategic Learning, Dr. Alley served as a Yemen expert for Gen. David Petraeus's U.S. Central

Repeated incidents demonstrate that Iran's clerical establishment has been unwilling to defend reform-minded clerics against the regime's attacks. Mehdi Khalaji posits that the Shiite clergy's silence does not stem from indifference but, instead, points to a fundamental tension between Iran's clerical establishment and its theocratic government whose roots date back

On July 14, 2010, Matthew Levitt, senior fellow and director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute, provided written testimony for the record to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, for a hearing titled "Evaluating the Justice against Sponsors of Terrorism Act

Four years ago this week, Israel launched a military campaign in Lebanon in retaliation for a brazen Hizballah attack on its soldiers. The goal, according to an Israeli official, was "to put Hizballah out of business." But neither war nor subsequent U.S. diplomatic efforts aimed at weakening the group have

On July 9, 2010, Reza Kahlili addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute. Mr. Kahlili is the author of A Time To Betray: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran, a memoir that describes his career as a spy for

With their warm words and smiles for the cameras in the Oval Office last week, President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took an important step toward surmounting what has lately been a serious obstacle to progress in the Middle East peace process -- a frosty U.S.-Israel relationship

U.S. President Barack Obama last week partly blamed the European Union for supposedly driving Turkey away from the West by stalling the country's EU accession. Mr. Obama is confusing cause and effect. The real problem is that the ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) doesn't share the dream of

For Turks today, after seven years of propaganda, Hamas appears to be a good organization as it has been a guest in Istanbul seven times and has had multiple contacts with the government. It even has fundraisers in Turkey. Therefore, one should not expect today that the Turks would oppose