Policy Analysis

Download this interview in PDF format. The United States has done a lot behind the scenes, such as shutting down the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) financial network in Europe, but Turks need something more tangible from the superpower US, says Soner Cagaptay, a senior fellow and director of The

On June 13, 2007, Ray Takeyh and Patrick Clawson addressed The Washington Institute's Policy Forum seminar series. Dr. Takeyh is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Clawson is deputy director for research at the Institute and coauthor of Forcing Hard Choices on

Historically, Palestinians have always felt that they could ill afford to fight themselves. Yet, today we are witnessing just such a struggle between Fatah and Hamas, and the very identity of the Palestinian people and their cause is at stake. Will the cause be a national cause or a religious

On June 20, 2007, Michael Jacobson, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute and former senior advisor at the Treasury Department, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe during a hearing titled "Adding Hezbollah to the EU Terrorist List." Matthew Levitt, director of the Institute's Stein Program on

Hamas will be more decisive than any other actor -- including the United States -- in determining whether it is isolated or not. The militant movement must now decide whether it will govern responsibly or remain mired in violence. Some of those who criticized the United States and the European

Introduction Pressing our European allies to add Hezbollah to the European Union (EU)'s terrorism list is more important today than ever before. Nearly a year after it dragged both Lebanon and Israel into a devastating war last July, Hezbollah has reportedly restocked its weapons caches and missile arsenals, rebuilt much

Introduction The hearing today is on an important topic that has not always received the public attention it deserves. Understandably, in the terrorism arena, most of the focus over the past five years has been on al-Qaeda and its affiliates, and what governments are doing to combat their terrorist activities

Nothing is more basic to statecraft than matching objectives and means. Sounds elementary, but it is not necessarily the norm in our foreign policy. Look at Iraq: It is the emblem of a policy that too often has been shaped by a mismatch between objectives and means. The administration's assessment

Hamas's victory in Gaza last week was a military coup of Fatah's security forces -- not a Palestinian civil war involving the majority of each faction's supporters. Fatah's armed forces collapsed in the face of a long-planned, well-executed campaign targeting the headquarters and leadership of the faction's security organizations. The

On June 18, 2007, Robert Satloff, executive director of The Washington Institute, addressed the Institute's special Policy Forum, along with Ghaith al-Omari, Robert Malley, and David Makovsky. The following are Dr. Satloff's remarks as prepared for delivery. Video of all speakers' remarks is available using the video link at right

In January, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice proclaimed her seriousness about trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. She declared that she had heard the calls of many of her colleagues internationally for the United States to become active again and push for Middle East peace. Since then, she has taken

On June 11, 2007, Dennis Ross and Thomas Friedman addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Ambassador Ross, the Institute's counselor and Ziegler distinguished fellow, is a former U.S. Middle East peace envoy and author of the just-released book Statecraft, And How to Restore America's Standing in the World (2007)

As the United Nations formulates the next round of sanctions against Iran, it should consider including something missing from the two earlier Security Council resolutions on the country. The addition of an independent monitoring team, which the United Nations has used effectively in its sanctions against Sudan, Somalia, Liberia and

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic party, now controls Gaza. The secular Fatah party has been routed. The result will be an Islamic statelet on Israel's southern border, dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state. It will exist in legal limbo -- not occupied by Israel but having most of its

From high-level diplomatic tours to multilateral summits in Baghdad and Sharm al-Sheikh, Washington has devoted increasing attention to Iraq's Arab neighbors. Yet, although speculation about the role of regional states in stabilizing Iraq has become something of a cottage industry in Washington, much of this analysis has focused on non-Arab

Yesterday's car bombing in Beirut, which killed Future Party parliamentarian Walid Eido, underscores the Syrian-backed multifront campaign to undermine stability in Lebanon. One front is the Palestinian refugee camps, particularly Nahr al-Bared, where the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) are currently fighting Fatah al-Islam, an al-Qaeda affilate with ties to Syria

On June 8, a day after reports that Turkish troops had crossed into northern Iraq to pursue members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Iranian aircraft bombed the camps of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), also in northern Iraq. PJAK, which operates in the mountains of northern

How did it come to pass that, not so long after 9/11 brought the free world to our side, U.S. foreign policy is in a shambles? In this thought-provoking book, the renowned peace negotiator Dennis Ross argues that the Bush administration's problems stem from its inability to use the tools

Three veteran American diplomats reflect on the fortieth anniversary of the Six-Day War at an Institute forum in 2007.

When one looks at U.S. foreign policy and our standing in the world today, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Bush administration has not exactly excelled in the exercise of statecraft. Good statecraft matches objectives and means. Poor statecraft does not. Look at the administration's signature issues