Policy Analysis

The Black Sea Naval Cooperation Task Group (BLACKSEAFOR), a regional maritime security initiative started by Turkey in 2001, was activated August 14-27. With world attention devoted to Iraq and the Middle East, important developments in the nearby Black Sea region involving energy politics, frozen conflicts, and new regional security initiatives

This is a painful time for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, but one he believes is required for Israel's fundamental security and demographic interests. He has bet his political future on the disengagement from Gaza. If there is calm not just for the disengagement but over the coming months, Sharon will

The August 3 bloodless military coup in Mauritania that removed president Maaouiya Ould Taya from power took place in one of the world's most impoverished nations, situated on Africa's northwest coast between Arab North Africa and black sub-Saharan Africa. The coup had all the familiar trappings of an African military

The following is a transcript from the PBS program NewsHour. MARGARET WARNER: For insight into how the Israel defense force -- or IDF -- is going about evicting the settlers, and the challenges ahead, we turn to Israeli Brig. Gen. Michael Herzog. Until last July, he was a top aide

Institute counselor and Ziegler distinguished fellow Dennis Ross was interviewed on August 16 by Bernard Gwertzman, consulting editor of cfr.org, the Council on Foreign Relations' web site. The New York Times featured their discussion as a Q&A on August 17. This is a transcript of that interview. Read the interview

An immediate consequence of Israel's disengagement from Gaza was Benjamin Netanyahu's August 7 resignation as finance minister, making a Likud Party leadership challenge between him and Ariel Sharon virtually inevitable. What will be the impact of such a challenge on Sharon's policy in the postdisengagement period? And how would a

August 17 is the official start of the campaign for Egypt's first multicandidate presidential election; voting is scheduled for on September 7. President Hosni Mubarak, who has held office for twenty-four years, has been elected without opposition four times. In the upcoming election, only party leaders can be candidates; no

"No one can want the Iranian leadership to gain possession of atomic weapons," German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder opined earlier this week. "But let's take the military option off the table. We have seen it doesn't work." Actually, the option least likely to work is the one most actively considered: economic

Iran's hardline establishment often declares that all Iranian citizens are united in their determination to see Iran exercise its "right" to nuclear power and "self-sufficiency" -- that is, operation of the complete fuel cycle. But are all Iranians really so enthused by the national nuclear program and heedless of international

The following is a transcript from the Washington Post online. Israel began its planned pullout from the Gaza Strip on today, despite internal opposition highlighted by the recent resignation of Benjamin Netanyahu from his position as finance minister. Netanyahu and the Likud party oppose Prime Minister Ariel Sharon 's plan

Within hours, history will almost surely be made in the Middle East as Israel begins its withdrawal from Gaza after 38 years of occupation. By taking this unprecedented step to dismantle the 21 settlements there, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- the driving force behind the Israeli settler movement --

On August 4, 2005, Dennis Ross, Brig. Gen. Michael Herzog, and David Makovsky addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Ambassador Ross, the Institute's counselor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and former U.S. Middle East peace envoy, has just returned from a month in the region. General Herzog of the Israel

The July 23 bombings at Sharm al-Shaykh offered a harsh reminder that Egypt remains vulnerable to Islamists who see terrorism as their only viable means of affecting political change. The attacks, which left at least sixty-four dead and more than two hundred injured, were the deadliest to be carried out

Iran's bold August 7 decision to resume uranium conversion -- previously frozen under an agreement with Britain, France, and Germany -- came only four days after new president Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad took office. This confrontational step suggests that the new administration may take strong actions to advance its hardline agenda. At

The division in the domestic Palestinian political scene ahead of Israel's forthcoming withdrawal from Gaza is pronounced. The Palestinian Authority, under the leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas seeks a smooth, co-ordinated transfer of power in order to define the Israeli pull-out as a positive step towards ending the occupation of

The significance of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza is obvious: For the first time since the 1967 war, it is setting about to dismantle settlements in an area that Palestinians see as part of their ultimate state, and it is doing so under the leadership of the man who was the

The London bombings served as an unpleasant reminder that Britain remains a primary target of the global Islamist terrorist movement. Michael Jacobson's forthcoming book on legal and law enforcement changes in the United States and Europe is particularly pertinent in light of such attacks. The following excerpts from his analysis

Important detail was missed in much of the reporting of the death of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia on Monday. Carried by the Saudi Press Agency, it was information in the new official biographies of the new King Abdullah and his designated successor, Crown Prince Sultan. Why does this matter

Daily images of carnage from Iraq and uncertainty over how to measure coalition progress continue to stoke debate in the United States. How does one assess the status of the insurgency? How are the efforts to recruit and train Iraq's security forces proceeding? What are America's options in Iraq? JACK

Controversy continues to surround the murky role played by financing in Iraq's insurgency since Operation Iraqi Freedom began two years ago. Lieutenant-General John Vines, the Multinational Force commander in Iraq, stated on 21 June 2005: "These insurgents do not have an ideology except violence and power. They have nothing to