Policy Analysis

This weekend may witness another Palestinian attempt to breach the frontier with Israel in a repeat of May 15's "Nakba (Catastrophe) Day," when thousands marched on border fences and crossing points during the annual Arab commemoration of events following Israel's 1948 founding. June 5 is being labeled "Naksa (Setback) Day,"

Between May 19 and May 24, 2011, President Barack Obama and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu delivered three landmark speeches that generated significant controversy regarding the status of relations between the two leaders and Washington's near-term plans for the peace process. At a time when the Palestinian Authority seems bent

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has now made the mistake that all Iranian presidents have made: he has challenged the authority of the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and he is doomed to fail.

Egypt's stock market has plummeted, and the United States should do more to help.

Over the past several decades, the Iraqi Security Forces have been shaped not only by external wars, but also by local factors. As the December 2011 deadline for full U.S. military withdrawal approaches, the success of American assistance in Iraq will rely more than ever on a clear understanding of

Saturday, May 28, the thirteenth anniversary of Pakistan's first nuclear test in 1998, revived a long-running and vicious campaign between the controversial Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan and the former military dictator Pervez Musharraf.

Recent polls indicate that Middle Eastern public opinion is becoming more amenable to Israeli-Palestinian peace, but at a time of immense regional upheaval, such sentiments are not pushing governments in that direction.

If the Asad regime falls in Syria, a key link in Iran's strategic chain across the region would be broken.

The specific Israeli-Palestinian territorial principles enunciated by President Obama have within them the seeds of deepening tension between the United States and Israel, and perhaps even a rift.

Andrew J. Tabler and Mara Karlin discuss what the United States can do to bring the Syrian crisis and the Asad regime to a peaceful end.

Although the financial implications of U.S. court verdicts against Syria are unlikely to change the regime's support for terrorism, they will impose an unprecedented price on Bashar al-Asad's increasingly reckless behavior.

On May 20, 2011, J. Scott Carpenter, Andrew J. Tabler, and Robert Satloff addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. Mr. Carpenter is the Institute's Keston Family fellow and director of Project Fikra, which focuses on empowering Arab democrats in their struggle against extremism. Mr. Tabler is the Institute's

Perhaps the most striking aspect of President Obama's May 19 remarks was how greatly they differed from his 2009 Cairo speech.

As Hamas-PA reconciliation accelerates momentum toward an attempted statehood resolution at the UN, Israel should seize the initiative and announce its own peace parameters rather than standing still.

When Muhammad Ali Jinnah envisioned the creation of Pakistan as a secular state for Muslims in the 1940s, he had little idea that his dream country would turn into an Islamist republic that enforces religion over its citizens, a hunting ground in which liberal Muslims are killed, and a safe haven for the world's most wanted terrorist.

President Obama surprised most observers by publicly recognizing that the primary stumbling block preventing forward movement on the peace process is not settlements, or even the status of Jerusalem or the right of return, but Hamas.

The Obama administration's announcement yesterday specifically sanctioning Syrian President Bashar al-Asad begins to clear the fog that has clouded policy toward this pivotal country since the outbreak of mass protests weeks ago. As U.S. and international leaders have grappled with popular uprisings across the Middle East, the tension between moral

Robert Satloff responds to Obama's recommendations regarding Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, made today in his "Winds of Change" speech at the State Department.

Washington and its allies should reach out to the Syrian opposition and help them plan for the eventuality of Asad's departure.

After appropriately exulting in the daring raid against Usama bin Laden, President Obama will connect that success to a broader theme -- the Arab "winds of change" -- whose prospects for success are certainly no greater than the 50/50 odds originally given for the Abbottabad mission. In so doing, the