Policy Analysis

A key issue in the runup to January's Palestinian parliamentary elections is whether the radical Islamist party Hamas will be allowed to participate and under what conditions. Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and foreign minister Silvan Shalom have insisted that the group disarm, disavow terror, and end its call for

In concluding my book last year, I suggested that we might find the missing peace when Yasir Arafat passed from the scene and it became possible to get beyond the dysfunction he cultivated. Little did I suspect he would die before the end of 2004. Now he is gone. Palestinians

On September 17, the United Nations (UN) report on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri is due to be handed to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. It may be delayed by a few months, however, to allow the international community to insist that Syrian officials be questioned and

The recent reports of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Iraq Survey Group, and the Presidential WMD Commission regarding intelligence and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq offer many useful insights into Iraq's weapons program and the challenges that the intelligence community faced in assessing them. But the reports offer

On September 7, Egyptians voted in their country's first multiparty presidential election. Though results are not yet final, preliminary tallies point to a victory for the incumbent president, Hosni Mubarak. Observers reported irregularities, and turnout did not seem to meet the ruling National Democratic Party's (NDP) expectations. More than half

Critics of the Bush administration's pro-democracy strategy in the Middle East have been pointing to this week's Egyptian election, which resulted in a landslide for Hosni Mubarak, as proof of a policy that's got little bark and even less bite. A policy with real teeth, they argue, would have demanded

Now that Israel has disengaged from the Gaza Strip and four settlements from the northern West Bank, the international community has a clear interest in doing all it can to see that the post-withdrawal security situation remains stable so that the exit from Gaza leads to further steps along the

The September 1 meeting in the Turkish city of Istanbul between Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Kasuri, was historic. There have been no public official contacts between the two nations since Pakistan was founded in 1947 as a home for Muslims in the Indian subcontinent

Back in 2003, Senator Robert Byrd voiced a common view among liberals about reconstruction: that it would be expensive and that America would have to pay for it. "[B]efore the war," he said, "the president's policy advisers assured the American people that Iraq would largely be able to finance its

Israeli disengagement from Gaza and the northern West Bank settlements has left in its wake three important crises for the religious Zionist movement that spearheaded settlements in Israel. These crises involve the settlers' future relationships with the Israeli public, the Israeli state, and the political secular right. For settlers, these

When The Washington Institute was founded in 1985, the Middle East was a critical front in the Cold War, Ayatollah Khomeini was at the vanguard of the Islamic revolution, the Arab-Israeli peace process was stagnant, and America was still reeling from the ignominy of withdrawing its Marine contingent from Lebanon

Though armed insurgencies can last for a decade or more, they also can have decisive periods in which their paths are set, even if those paths do not become apparent for some time. Iraq appears to be entering just such a period of decision. Starting Conditions The process of political

After Israel's pullout from Gaza, the secretary general of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, declared that the withdrawal was an Israeli defeat and a victory for violence. Mr. Mashal made clear to reporters in Beirut that suicide bombings inside Israeli cities and mortars fired at Israeli towns were effective. He proclaimed, "The

Warnings by Sunni politicians of even greater violence if Sunni Arab concerns are not addressed in the draft Iraqi constitution raise the question: could the insurgency get worse? The answer can be found by examining the insurgency's demographic dimension. The Insurgency's Recruitment Base Sufficiently detailed demographic data exist to allow

If the US-Turkish relationship is the single most important unintended victim of the Iraq war, then disarming the PKK is a sure way of restoring the partnership to good health. The PKK presence in northern Iraq has thus far escaped US occupation untouched, and the organization has relaunched attacks inside

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

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