الطاقة والاقتصاد

Peace in the Persian Gulf is crucial for international stability, including in East Asia. Moreover, a stable supply of crude oil and natural gas is essential to the United States, the European Union and the Asian countries. Nearly 80 percent of Japan's crude oil imports come from the Gulf region

In the latter half of the 1990s, the Iranian economy faces horrendous problems: economic mismanagement, high inflation, declining living standards, a growing gap (much of it fueled by pervasive corruption) between a wealthy minority and vast impoverished majority, high rates of unemployment, an inability to significantly increase oil production (concurrent

For the United States, supporting UN Security Council Resolution 986 is a gamble. Washington hopes that the "oil-for-food" deal will be a trap that will reduce pressure to lift the rest of Iraqi sanctions, thereby thwarting Saddam Hussein's strategy to win the end of sanctions by playing on international sympathy

The Cairo Economic Summit comes at an exciting time for Middle East regional cooperation. Regional countries have made substantial progress toward economic reform, including steps toward privatization and structural reform. Unfortunately, although all states in the region have a strong interest in promoting regional cooperation, only 7 percent of regional

The Cairo Economic Summit will take place as scheduled. Egypt is preparing for it and anticipating a constructive conference. This conference comes in the context of Egypt's overall structural reform program, initiated twelve years ago, when the government set out "to make Egypt a better place to live." This program

Leaders of the Middle East, along with leaders around the world, can create a new path toward economic development and prosperity in the Middle East. The alternative would be to descend into regional instability bred by a 3 percent annual Middle East population growth. But leaders need to deflate their

Although the enemies of peace threaten to return to the bloodshed of the past, the peace process has defined a new Palestinian-Israeli dynamic, a relationship of peace. The persistence of the process in the face of so many threats is a testament to the commitment of both the Palestinians and

Iraq and the United Nations are in the fourth round of negotiations about terms for implementing UN Security Council Resolution 986 -- an arrangement to permit limited and controlled oil sales to provide Baghdad with funds to purchase humanitarian goods. The talks hit a snag in late April, when the

While the pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace justly remains the dominant U.S. interest in the Levant, it is important to assess Syrian politics through a wider political lens. Since coming to power in 1970, Assad has imposed a brutal, authoritarian police state that has brought an unprecedented measure of stability to