Policy Analysis

The following are edited extracts from an exclusive on-camera interview with Israeli vice prime minister Shimon Peres, conducted by David Makovsky, director of The Washington Institute's Project on the Middle East Peace Process. The interview was shown to participants at the Institute's Soref Symposium on May 11, 2007. Q: Can

Editor's Note: Martin Kramer is an authority on contemporary Islam and Arab politics, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Olin Institute Senior Fellow at Harvard University. On April 30, he delivered a lecture at Harvard on the subject of Iraq and the future of the

On May 11, 2007, David Makovsky conducted a special keynote interview of the Honorable Shimon Peres at The Washington Institute's 19th annual Soref Symposium. David Makovsky is a senior fellow and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Institute. Shimon Peres is the deputy prime

On May 11, 2007, David Makovsky and Dennis Ross addressed The Washington Institute's Soref Symposium. Mr. Makovsky is a senior fellow and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Institute. Ambassador Ross is the Institute's counselor and Ziegler distinguished fellow. The following is a rapporteur's

On May 11, 2007, Charles Hill, Kurt Campbell, and Michael Eisenstadt addressed The Washington Institute's Soref Symposium. Mr. Hill is a diplomat-in-residence at Yale University. Dr. Campbell is cofounder and chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security. Mr. Eisenstadt is a senior fellow and director of

On May 11, 2007, Mehdi Khalaji, Sami al-Faraj, and Neil Crompton addressed The Washington Institute's Soref Symposium. Mr. Khalaji is the Institute's Next Generation fellow. Dr. al-Faraj is president of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies. Mr. Crompton is the Iran coordinator at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The

On May 10, 2007, Robert Kimmitt addressed The Washington Institute's 19th annual Soref Symposium. Ambassador Kimmitt is deputy secretary of the treasury. The following is the prepared text of his remarks. Read a summary of the audience Q&A session following Ambassador Kimmitt's address. Thank you very much, Peter. It is

Economic sanctions have long been at the core of the international community's efforts to deal with rogue regimes and terrorist organisations. Iraq, Iran, Libya and Sudan have faced sanctions, as have terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and Hamas. For such a frequently used tool, sanctions are not well regarded. Critics

The political turmoil in Turkey prompted by the April 24 nomination by Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader and Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, as his candidate for presidency is far from over. The actions of the leadership of the AKP, a party

In April 2007, Syria's nationwide parliamentary elections passed with little fanfare, as much of the population showed apathy toward a process they view as undemocratic. Despite the unusually open display of skepticism among the people, the country's organized opposition movements could do little more than call for a voter boycott

Vice President Dick Cheney departed today on a trip to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan. A bland statement issued from his office on May 3 said he was asked to travel by President Bush and would be having "discussions with the leaders of these countries on

Talk to senior Israeli military officials, as I have recently, about how the Israeli government will respond to regional threats, and one hears the same refrain: "Wait for the Winograd findings." Well, we now know what they are. The Winograd Commission, established last fall to investigate Israel's war with Lebanon

On April 26, 2007, Jeffrey White, Andrew Exum, and Michael Eisenstadt addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Mr. White is the Institute's Berrie defense fellow and coauthor, with Mr. Eisenstadt, of the Institute Policy Focus Assessing Iraq's Sunni Arab Insurgency. Mr. Exum, a Soref fellow at the Institute, served

On April 18, 2007, senior Treasury and State Department officials testifying before Congress were criticized for failing to employ sufficiently tough economic sanctions against Iran. This failure was partly attributed to Washington's fear of upsetting foreign allies. Ironically enough, the Bush administration could use such congressional pressure as leverage in

The scathing interim report issued this week by an Israeli panel that reviewed the decisions leading to the country's war with Hezbollah last summer may spell doom for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's leadership. Calls for his resignation have mounted even within his own party. However, the real story is that

Introduction Almost all Arab polls show widespread disapproval of American policies, both in Iraq and in the Arab-Israeli arena -- and negative overall images of the U.S., especially since we went to war in Iraq. On the brighter side, there is some polling evidence that certain Arab publics increasingly reject

On April 30, 2007, the Turkish stock market slumped and the value of the lira dropped following a massive demonstration in Istanbul against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, coupled with a statement by the military voicing support for secularism. Previously, the comparatively healthy Turkish economy had boosted the

Buried deep in the U.S. State Department's 335-page report on terrorism in 2006, released this week, is a brief section on "countering terrorism on the economic front." It offers a comprehensive outline of the government's successful efforts to block funding of terrorists and their supporters but makes no mention of

The just-released Winograd Report, an investigation of Israeli decisionmaking in the 2006 summer war with Hizballah, has put Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a battle for survival. Today, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni publicly called for Olmert's dismissal. Will the prime minister's tenure last beyond this growing crisis? Background The 150-page

The Middle East is abuzz with talk of ''Shiitization.'' Since the war in Lebanon last summer, newspapers, TV news channels and Web sites in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have reported that Sunnis, taken with Hezbollah's charismatic Shiite leader Hassan Nasrallah and his group's ''resistance'' to Israel, were converting to