Policy Analysis

As shocking as today's attacks on worshipping Iraqi Shia Muslims are, they were entirely predictable. For weeks the American and British occupation forces had been fearing violence during the festival of Ashura. I know. I was told so several times when I was in Baghdad a month ago. For the

American efforts towards a democratic Iraq seem to have created some strange bedfellows in the Middle East. The Sunnis of the region -- from Baathist loyalists in Iraq and hardcore Wahhabi zealots in Saudi Arabia to secular-minded elites in Amman, Cairo, and elsewhere -- are now united around a common

Recent revelations regarding Iran's nuclear program have reinforced suspicions that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons option, and may be a few short years away from acquiring "the bomb." While senior Iranian officials have repeatedly stated that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons and that the possession and use of

While anti-Americanism has deep resonance in the Arab world, the situation is quite different in Iran, where the United States has in recent years become profoundly popular....

The 1 February suicide bombings of Kurdish political offices in Arbil highlight a growing instability in northern Iraq. Having operated autonomously during the last 13 years of Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq, leaders of the Kurdistan Regional Government are keen to continue this arrangement in the new constitution, but are

A recently intercepted message from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan

Union Transport Africaines (UTA) Flight 141 bound for Beirut crashed on take-off from Cotonou in Benin, West Africa on 25 December 2003. According to accounts in the Arab press, a "foreign relations official of the African branch of the Lebanese Hizbullah party and two of his aides" were among those

The following is aÿrapporteur's summary of Matthew Levitt's remarks to the CNA Corporation's Center for Strategic Studies workshop on "Oil, Terrorism, and More: The Growing Strategic Significance of West Africa." As we succeed in denying terrorists safe havens in Afghanistan in elsewhere, international Jihadist networks seek new locations in which

What you see in Iraq is not necessarily reality. A useful early warning was the two soldiers standing on the Iraqi side of the Habur Gate border with Turkey. Their black berets were emblazoned with the metal insignia showing the Iraqi eagle and flag and they certainly looked like Saddam

On the eve of the "super Tuesday" Democratic primaries, voters are scrutinizing the positions of the two leading candidates, Senators John Edwards and John Kerry. The following quotes outline their views on Middle East policy: Iraq Edwards: "This policy in Iraq is a failure. What [the Bush administration is] failing

On February 23, 2004, Shimon Peres addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Current chairman of Israel's Labor Party, Mr. Peres previously served as that country's prime minister, foreign minister, and defense minister, as well as in numerous other positions during a career that has spanned six decades. For his

The Israeli government must base its policies on a simple but important vision: that of Israel as a democratic, Jewish state. Although Israel will continue to have a large Muslim minority, it must be a Jewish state, one that can live peacefully alongside a Palestinian state. Three simultaneous steps are

For much of the upcoming presidential election season, the United States will no doubt be preoccupied with domestic affairs on the one hand, and the postwar transition in Iraq on the other. Although Washington undoubtedly hopes for a quiet year in the Middle East, reality might bring less desirable results

SHAUL BAKHASH The autocratic features of the Islamic Republic of Iran have demonstrated remarkable durability over the past twenty-five years. The defining characteristic of the Iranian political system is the concentration of authority in the person of the Supreme Religious Leader, who has vast powers under the constitution. In some

On February 12, 2004, Paula Dobriansky addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. As the undersecretary of state for global affairs, Dr. Dobriansky is the senior State Department official responsible for a broad range of transnational issues, including democracy, human rights, labor, counternarcotics, law enforcement, refugees, humanitarian relief, and environmental

The Bush administration has recently circulated to its G-8 partners the details of the Greater Middle East Partnership (GMEP) that Washington hopes will win endorsement at the group's May 2004 summit in Sea Island, Georgia. The GMEP is a core element of the administration's larger Greater Middle East Initiative, which

Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee As the prospects for even limited bilateral Israeli-Palestinian agreements have grown increasingly more remote, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has announced his intention to withdraw nearly all the Israeli settlements from the Gaza strip. It is a revolutionary move that creates the possibility of

Mohammed Zuul, 23, blew himself up Sunday on a bus in the middle of Jerusalem, killing eight other people and wounding 50 more. The attack came on the eve of hearings in The Hague on whether Israel had the right to construct a fence to protect itself from assaults like

To no one's surprise, the Iranian parliamentary elections resulted in a conservative sweep; the hardliners had rigged the rules so as to prevent a serious contest. As the hardliners consolidate their control, they may be interested in improving relations with the United States, though a major initiative would likely appear

On February 5, 2004, a German court acquitted Abdelghani Mzoudi, a thirty-one-year-old native Moroccan, of 3,066 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization (al-Qaeda). Mzoudi is suspected of having provided material and financial support to the Hamburg cell that helped organize and perpetrate the terrorist attacks