Policy Analysis

For the past several years, Turkey has balanced its relationship with the West with its relationship with Iran and Russia -- just as Finland balanced the West and Russia during the Cold War. Finland, at the time, paralleled Western policies but remained intimate with Moscow. In this Turkish-language interview, Soner

On Friday, September 26, The Washington Post asked various foreign affairs analysts and other experts for their evaluation of what the two presidential candidates should discuss in their first televised debate, which took place that evening. Afterward, the Post asked those analysts to share their assessments of the debate. The

On September 22, the Iraqi parliament belatedly passed a provincial elections law, ending a long and costly deadlock. Parliament ratified the initial version of the law on July 22, but it was later vetoed by two members of Iraq's presidency council. This time it is likely that the bill will

Conventional wisdom holds that when Iran's supreme leader says, "Jump," millions of Shiites, from the Beirut slums to the Saudi oilfields, ask, "How high?" But a recent meeting in Baghdad between a wealthy Lebanese Sunni politician and an ascetic Shiite theologian twice his age suggests that there is a move

Last week, al-Qaeda affiliates attempted to storm the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, leaving seventeen dead, including one American woman. The attack highlights the ongoing problem of terrorism in Yemen, where the United States has struggled to achieve an adequate level of counterterrorism cooperation. The challenge for U.S. policymakers is

In the wake of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's narrow Kadima party victory over Shaul Mofaz last week, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert resigned on Sunday night. The following day, Israeli president Shimon Peres asked Livni to form a new governing coalition, but if she is unable to do so in

For the last six years, the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association, Tusiad, has been a crucial source of support for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The pro-business, pro-European Union group provided the party with domestic and international legitimacy, and armed it with the means to fight off accusations

Download the complete proceedings. On September 21, 2008, Jackson Diehl and Jeffrey Goldberg addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Mr. Diehl is deputy editorial page editor of the Washington Post. Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for the Atlantic. The following is a rapporteur's summary of their remarks

Download the complete proceedings. On September 21, 2008, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Isaac Ben-Israel, Kassem Jaafar, and Anthony Cordesman addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. General Ben-Israel is a member of the Knesset representing the Kadima Party. Mr. Jaafar is a Britain-based analyst and advisor on strategic and diplomatic

Download the complete proceedings. On September 21, 2008, Soner Cagaptay and Philip Gordon addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Dr. Cagaptay is a senior fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at the Institute. Mr. Gordon, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Brookings Institution

Download the complete proceedings. On September 20, 2008, Isaac Herzog and David Makovsky addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Mr. Herzog is Israel's minister of welfare and social services, as well as minister of the diaspora, society, and the fight against anti-Semitism. Mr. Makovsky is a senior fellow

Download the complete proceedings. On September 20, 2008, J. Scott Carpenter, Mohamed Abdelbaky, Oussama Safa, Engi El-Haddad, and Nader Said addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Mr. Carpenter is a Keston Family fellow at the Institute and director of its Project Fikra. Mr. Abdelbaky is foreign affairs editor

Download the complete proceedings. On September 20, 2008, Colin Mellis, Maajid Nawaz, and Farah Pandith addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Mr. Mellis is a policy advisor on radicalization to the City of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Mr. Nawaz is the founder and codirector of the Quilliam Foundation

Download the complete proceedings. On September 20, 2008, Richard Clarke -- a senior foreign policy advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama -- addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Mr. Clarke's three decades of government experience include service as special assistant to the president for global affairs

Download the complete proceedings. On September 20, 2008, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Giora Eiland and Marwan Muasher addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. General Eiland is a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv and director of its Program on IDF Force Structure

Download the complete proceedings. On September 20, 2008, Richard Williamson addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. The president's special envoy to Sudan, Mr. Williamson is a senior foreign policy advisor to Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. The following is a rapporteur's summary of his remarks. John McCain

Robert Satloff and Martin Kramer addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference on September 20, 2008, to introduce the inaugural awards of the Institute's Book Prize. Michael Mandelbaum, who with eminent Middle East historian Bernard Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim Hoagland juried the Book Prize, announced the winning books

Download the complete proceedings. On September 20, 2008, Max Boot and Richard Danzig addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Mr. Boot, an advisor to the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations

Download the complete proceedings. On September 20, 2008, Ghassan Atiyyah, Reuel Marc Gerecht, and Michael Knights addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Mr. Atiyyah is a former visiting fellow at the Institute and director of the Iraq Foundation for Development and Democracy. Mr. Gerecht is a resident fellow

Download the complete proceedings. On September 19, 2008, Isaac Herzog, Riad Malki, and Dennis Ross addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Mr. Herzog serves as Israel's minister of welfare and social services as well as minister of the diaspora, society, and the fight against anti-Semitism. Mr. Malki serves