Policy Analysis

Widespread Islamist gains -- from Hamas's ascension in Gaza to the Muslim Brotherhood's successes in Egypt -- seem to have muted the previously high-profile agenda of bringing democracy to Arab countries. In both Washington and the region itself, little confidence remains in the short-term viability of democratic reform in an

Note: This PolicyWatch is based on the author's recent op-ed in Financial Times Deutschland. Read the original op-ed (in German). With U.S. government assistance, three "homegrown" terrorist suspects were arrested in Germany several weeks ago. Despite this success story, transatlantic counterterrorism ties have been seriously tested over the past three

This op-ed originally appeared in German. To read the German text, follow the link below.

This week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again darkens the doorstep of America to address the United Nations. There he is likely to express outrage that New York refused his request to visit Ground Zero. Like that visit would have been, his speech will be designed to divert attention from what

Sometimes in international relations it is good to preserve mystery. The irony is that often when an action has been taken but not admitted, everyone seems to know anyway. That certainly seems to be the case with Israel's military strike against a target in northern Syria. The Israelis aren't talking

The September 6 Israeli bombing of a presumed North Korean-supplied nuclear weapons facility in Syria highlights the ongoing policy challenge posed by Damascus. More than three years after President Bush signed the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act (SAA), Syria continues to support terrorism, destabilize Iraq, meddle in Lebanon

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently visited Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to get personal briefings from each leader regarding their sensitive discussions on peace. Such briefings are designed so that Rice can identify the existing gaps between the parties and fashion U.S. strategy in

The September 6 Israeli airstrike in northeastern Syria has produced intense speculation. According to the New York Times, Israeli intelligence believes the target was part of a clandestine Syrian nuclear weapons program aided by North Korea. This raises broader questions about the status of Syria's strategic weapons programs, which would

On September 6, Israeli planes bombed a presumed North Korean-supplied Syrian nuclear weapons facility. The incident highlights an ongoing theme in regional politics in recent years: Syrian President Bashar Asad's profoundly poor judgment. Policies pursued by the Asad regime, particularly since 2003 -- from Iraq, to Lebanon, to the Palestinian

In the aftermath of Israel's air operation over Syria, Dr. Andrew Semmel, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy and Negotiations, warned that Syria might have a number of "secret suppliers" for a covert nuclear program. Syria is reported to have thousands of rockets with ranges of

An update on the work and recommendations of the 9-11 Commission.

With secularism, PKK terrorism, and other Turkish issues increasingly becoming international concerns, a dangerous Islamist trend has been overlooked: radical groups inspired more by the revolutionary ideology of Iran than domestic issues such as Kurdish nationalism are staking their own claim to power. One such group is Hizballah in Turkey

Relations between the Syrian government and Americans who work with Syrians here are as bad as I have seen in the four years since I began working as the American editor of Syria Today, the country's first private-sector English language magazine. Last November, the Syrian authorities closed the Damascus offices

A series of congressional hearings and media interviews by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker this week offered insights into the U.S. strategy in Iraq, and several yardsticks by which future progress there may be evaluated. Encouraging Numbers In his testimony to Congress, General Petraeus stated that "the military

During the first eighteen months following its January 2006 electoral victories, Hamas took an incremental approach toward official integration into the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Since its takeover of Gaza in June 2007, however, Hamas has changed tactics and imposed an independent, authoritarian regime. After

Engagement activities -- overt interactions between coalition military and foreign civilian personnel for the purpose of obtaining information, influencing behavior, or building an indigenous base of support for coalition objectives -- have played a central role in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). They have involved efforts to reach out to village

When surveying the challenges we face internationally, it is easy to put Russia on the back burner. Consider what the next president is likely to inherit internationally. In Iraq, disengaging in a way that contains the turmoil from spilling over into the region and still preserves some prospect of a

The recent National Intelligence Estimate painted a troubling picture. While al-Qaida is resurgent, with an "undiminished" intent to attack the U.S. homeland, international counterterrorism cooperation is likely to wane as 9/11 grows more distant. Revitalizing the United Nations' counterterrorism role would be an important step to bolster the international effort

It seems a very long time ago that President George W. Bush gave his second inaugural address. In January 2005, he proclaimed that "the best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world." With this soaring idea, deeply rooted in America's Wilsonian political

Note: This PolicyWatch is based on the author's recent op-ed in Financial Times Deutschland. Read the original op-ed (in German). Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the July 22 parliamentary elections with a solid mandate. A major task awaiting the new AKP government is resolving the controversy surrounding