Policy Analysis

Lebanon has secured pledges for assistance roughly equal to its $3.6 billion estimate of what is required to rebuild from the recent war. Though foreign assistance will be an important element in the short-term physical reconstruction, it will do little to help Beirut contend with the longstanding structural maladies afflicting

Iraqi Shiite cleric Ali Hussein al-Sistani has achieved tremendous popularity in recent years, becoming the greatest marja, or independent religious authority, in the Shiite world. But how does his influence compare to that of Iran's Supreme Leader, who can draw upon the considerable resources of the Iranian state? In this

As part of the international effort to ensure that the cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel can become a sustainable ceasefire, much attention has been paid to blocking arms shipments to Hizballah, as called for in UN Security Council Resolution 1701. But another threat to peace in the region

Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency, which first emerged in spring 2003, continues today, and no blend of coalition operational strategy has succeeded in substantially diminishing it. In fact, by some measures, the insurgency has grown in scope and capability. What makes the insurgents such difficult targets? How have they been able

From the outset, there was no “victory” to be had in this war, no resounding knockout. Still, the final score, on points, should have turned out very different from this. The perception that we’ve ended in a draw is actually a great achievement for Hizballah, one that all terror organizations

On August 25, 2006, Jeffrey White, David Makovsky, and Dennis Ross addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum. Jeffrey White is the Berrie Defense Fellow at The Washington Institute and the coauthor, with Michael Eisenstadt, of the Institute Policy Focus Assessing Iraq’s Sunni Arab Insurgency. David Makovsky, senior fellow and

Advocates of U.S. diplomatic reengagement with Syria have received a clear answer from Damascus. On August 15, Syrian president Bashar Assad gave a lengthy speech to the Syrian Journalists Association condemning the Bush administration, disparaging the United Nations, declaring support for Hezbollah and regional “resistance,” and calling for the removal

On August 23, 2006, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Daniel Christman, Emile El-Hokayem, and Michael Eisenstadt addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum. General Christman is senior vice president for international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and previously served as assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

On August 15, Syrian president Bashar al-Asad gave a significant policy speech to the Syrian Journalists Union in which he expressed his support for Hizballah. More importantly, the address sought to redefine Syria’s position in the Arab world. Building on Washington’s talk of the birth of a new Middle East

On August 20, 2006, the Arab League committee on Sudan backed Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir’s refusal of a UN peacekeeping force in the war-wracked Darfur region. At the UN Security Council, the only open critic of the proposal to send such a force is Qatar, the only Arab member of

For the last year, Iran has been successfully gaming the international diplomatic process, stalling while its nuclear program moves inexorably forward. We need to make time work for us, not against us. The best way to do that is to take bold and immediate steps to deter and contain Iran

Read more about Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer’s opposition to Turkish participation in the Lebanon peacekeeping mission. With relative quiet prevailing in Lebanon, the question now is which countries will send peacekeepers to enforce order in the country. International media and policy pundits alike have proposed Turkish peacekeepers as an

Read more about Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer’s opposition to Turkish participation in the Lebanon peacekeeping mission. With quiet prevailing in Lebanon, the question now is which countries will send international peacekeepers to enforce a permanent cease-fire in the country. Media and policy pundits alike have proposed Turkish soldiers as

While U.S. and coalition forces—and increasingly the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF)—struggle to defeat the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, they are also dealing with a range of armed groups that complicate the security scenario. Militias and ad hoc units with different levels of government sanction are growing in strength, and the

David Makovsky, an expert on Israeli politics, says in the aftermath of the month-long Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, questions are being raised about the viability of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. “There are going to be a lot of questions on whether the Olmert government can survive,” Makovsky says

Sectarian violence has now surpassed the insurgency as the main security challenge in Iraq. Quelling this violence—which threatens to derail that country’s troubled political transition, devastate the Iraqi people, inflict lasting harm on the country’s social fabric and economy, erode flagging U.S. domestic support for the war effort, and heighten

Read the Turkish Daily News editorial response to this article. Something is changing in the Turks' sense of who they are. You hear it from cab drivers or columnists, old friends and fresh acquaintances. For a long time, the Turks put their Turkish identity first, snubbing their Muslim neighborhood. Now

Despite characterizations of last week’s thwarted attempt to blow up ten transatlantic flights as “homegrown,” Pakistan, rather than the United Kingdom, has emerged as the epicenter of planning. The incident is part of a wider pattern—the past six weeks alone have revealed that several other aspiring and successful militants had

In 1993 and 1996 I helped broker understandings that brought conflicts between Hezbollah and Israel to an end. Both times Hezbollah instigated warfare with Katyusha rocket fire into Israel and Israel retaliated, determined to damage Hezbollah’s capacity for making war and to demonstrate to the Lebanese the cost of Hezbollah’s

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is a man who likes flags. At the start of the war, he appeared on his organization’s al-Manar television station with a Hezbollah flag behind him. Then that was replaced by a Lebanese flag. Lately, he has placed both flags at his side. There’s been one