Policy Analysis

Yesterday, November 17, in the middle of the Eid al-Adha holiday, the Saudi Press Agency announced that Prince Badr, the long-serving deputy commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG), had asked to be relieved from that role due to ill health. Minutes later, the agency announced that Badr's request

In a speech this October at the national conference on "soft war" in Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emphasized that, "there are many interpretations of Islam, but [the] basis for our practice is the Iranian interpretation. The historical experience proves that the Iranian interpretation of the truth is the closest one

The quarrel between Ankara and NATO over the proposed missile-defense initiative suggests that Turkey is becoming the Alliance's "opt-out" member in operations in Muslim countries. The governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) has so far refused to host the missile shield because it is directed against potential threats from two

On November 17, 2010, Washington Institute executive director Robert Satloff offered Institute trustees immediate insight into the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary study tour to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, and Jordan.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was in China this month touting the "new cooperation paradigm" between Ankara and Beijing. Just a week earlier, a top political advisor to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao spent five days in Syria signing deals and planting olive trees in the Golan Heights. The Middle Kingdom

This is the second of a three-part series on Egypt's political future. Read part one and part three. The Egyptian regime has used constitutional amendments to consolidate its power vis-a-vis the "loyal opposition" and to fend off independent bids for the presidency. The amendments have also closed off all legal

This is the first of a three-part series on Egypt's political future. Read part two and part three. Egypt's parliamentary elections, to be held on November 28, are a dress rehearsal for a much larger event: the 2011 presidential elections. Cairo is currently rife with rumors and National Democratic Party

Turkey may be the most Muslim nation in the world. It was forged through blood and war as a state exclusively by and for Muslims -- a claim it shares only with Pakistan. Fleeing persecution in Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus, millions of Turkish and non-Turkish Muslims settled there, and

The recently foiled parcel bomb plot, tied to al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula, demonstrates today's persistent terror threat from abroad. Yet Western democracies face an equally serious threat from home-grown terrorists. In the past two weeks, the US government unsealed charges against six men accused of funnelling money to al-Shabab

Eight years after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) ascended to power in Ankara, U.S.-Turkish relations stand at a critical juncture: bilateral tensions surrounding regional flashpoints like Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process have heightened, and even the six-decade-old NATO-Turkish relationship can no longer be taken for granted, as evidenced

For the last few months, a forty-three-page Arabic-language booklet has been emailed to Hamas activists in the Gaza Strip and to select members of the group in the West Bank and elsewhere. Titled The Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Revolution in Iran, this new publication represents the most important attempt

The demise of Turkey's secular parties in the past decade is an example of what happens to an eye one does not use: It stops functioning properly. This is precisely what happened to the secular parties in Turkey. These factions ruled the country until 2002, when the Justice and Development

While all eyes are fixed on the faltering Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Israel is involved in another diplomatic standoff whose consequences may be just as dire for the future of the Middle East. The impasse in question is between Turkey and Israel -- erstwhile allies whose deteriorating relations undermine the security of

A key option for inspectors of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world body charged with stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, is a "special inspection" an intrusive visit made when the IAEA judges the information provided by a state to be inadequate. But The IAEA is reluctant

Presentation delivered at the Middle East Institute. Having reached the midway point of this term, the Obama administration is now at a logical time to evaluate where its effort in Israeli-Palestinian mediation stand, and to look ahead at prospects for the future. The Obama administration inherited challenging conditions in 2009

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) rose to power in Turkey in 2002, introducing new social, political and foreign policy currents throughout Turkish society. Reports indicate that under the AKP's guidance, Turkey is becoming more conservative. While social conservatism is not in itself a problem, a government-enforced conservative transformation of

As a journalist, I covered Yitzhak Rabin for the better part of eight years, from 1987 to 1995. During that period, I interviewed him when he was defense minister and in the political opposition, and I covered him when he was prime minister of Israel, during the zenith of the

The October 27 death of a long-serving Arab ruler in an obscure Persian Gulf sheikhdom has the potential to alter the tense relationship between the region's Arab states and Iran, while also testing the ruling style and adaptability of hereditary, quasimonarchical Arab states. Tiny but strategically situated Ras al-Khaimah, part

On October 26, 2010, Tal Becker and Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Michael Herzog addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute to discuss current Israeli strategic thinking at the negotiating table and on possible future battlefields. Mr. Becker is an Israel-based international associate with the Institute. Previously, he served

On October 22, 2010, Ahmed Ali, Michael Knights, and Michael Eisenstadt addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute. Mr. Ali is a Marcia Robbins-Wilf research associate at the Institute, focusing on the political dynamics of Iraq. Dr. Knights is a Lafer fellow at the Institute, specializing in