Policy Analysis

On May 1–2, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Israel. Erdogan’s trip is important since it follows harsh criticism of Israel’s policies in the Palestinian territories (see “Where Goes the Turkish-Israeli Relationship?” by this author in Middle East Quarterly, fall 2004). Turkish-Israeli relations, which flourished in the 1990s

On April 25, 2005, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia will meet with President George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas. The de facto ruler of the world’s largest oil exporter flies in from Morocco, where he has been vacationing after a three-day visit to France. While President Bush is expected

On April 14, 2005, Ambassador Ali Tuygan, Turkish undersecretary of foreign affairs, addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum. Ambassador Tuygan served as deputy undersecretary for bilateral political affairs at the Turkish foreign ministry between 2001 and 2004. Prior to that, he served as Turkish ambassador to Greece, Saudi Arabia

After several months of negotiation between Jordanian and Israeli officials, the Israeli cabinet voted unanimously on Sunday to release nine Jordanian prisoners. According to Jordan's foreign ministry, seven of the nine were released today. Although the Jordanian government welcomed this move as a gesture intended to strengthen bilateral relations, the

On April 7, 2005, Dennis Ross, Michael Herzog, and David Makovsky addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum. Ambassador Ross is the Institute’s counselor and Ziegler distinguished fellow, former U.S. Middle East peace envoy, and author of The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace

Disengagement is the most important step Israel can take at this time to secure its own future; however, disengagement poses a unique challenge, namely, how to address the emotional and practical difficulties in removing settlers from Gaza and the West Bank. The Knesset's recent rejection of a referendum bill to

Turkish-US relations are at a low point. In Turkey, literally every Turk feels resentful of America's Middle East policies, and Ankara is reaching out to US foes Syria and Iran. An outgoing US ambassador to Ankara may not be replaced immediately when the time comes in the summer, a sure

Later this week, the U.S. Senate is expected to confirm John Negroponte, President George W. Bush’s nominee for the newly created position of director of national intelligence. In this new position, Negroponte will be responsible for managing the 15 agencies comprising the U.S. intelligence community. Despite having served both as

With upcoming visits by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to see President Bush, it is a good time to take stock of the Israeli-Palestinian situation. If my recent discussions in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Gaza are any indication, the current trends are not encouraging. While Sharon

This Foreign Affairs article is based on David Makovsky's Engagement through Disengagement: Gaza and the Potential for Renewed Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking (The Washington Institute, 2005). View a detailed map of the Gaza Strip, including Israeli settlements, Palestinian communities, IDF security zones, Egypt-Israel border buffer zone, checkpoints, and roads. After four and

One way to judge the success of the upcoming Bush-Sharon summit in Crawford is by examining whether it leads to a meeting of the minds and greater clarity on four pivotal Israeli-Palestinian issues: the terms of the current ceasefire; West Bank settlement activity; the timing of, and eligibility rules for

The fast and steady deterioration of the French-U.S. relationship has recently entered an equally swift upturn. The Bush administration, reelected by a majority vote in 2004, has not changed the substance of its foreign policy. Given a similarly unvarying stance by France, no shift of policy by either nation has

When Turkey's Parliament on March 1, 2003 failed to approve the Bush Administration's request for a “northern front” against Iraq, it became clear that the Iraq War would prove a watershed in U.S. - Turkish strategic partnership. Left unanswered at the time were fundamental questions of how relations would develop

King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein, decendant of the Prophet Muhammad, is the fourth ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the great-grandson of his namesake, the kingdom’s founder. Born on January 30, 1962, to King Hussein’s second wife, the British-born Princess Muna, he is the eldest of Hussein’s

Next to the Middle East lies another region with a large Muslim population and some acute problems with Islamist radicalism: the Caucasus. Aware of the danger that instability in the Caucasus (particularly since the dissolution of the Soviet Union) could spill over into the Middle East, Israel has actively sought

President George W. Bush’s March 15 statement expressing hope that Hizballah would prove not to be a terrorist organization, “laying down arms and not threatening peace,” suggests a conundrum for policymakers: how do you treat a chameleonic body that is simultaneously an important political party and an armed terror group

As Syrian troops continue to withdraw from parts of Lebanon, three bomb attacks have occurred within eight days in predominantly Christian areas: a March 19 car bomb wrecked the front of a building in New Jdeideh, wounding nine; a March 22 bomb ripped through an elite shopping center in Kaslik

Congratulations on your nomination as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. Though this is a third-level State Department appointment, with an office about a half-mile away from your former prime spot in the West Wing of the White House, it is actually one of the most important jobs in the

In countering insurgencies—wars without fronts, against often-elusive enemies—there is a temptation to rely on quantitative measures to gauge success. Although tracking and assessing trends in, for example, the number of insurgents and attacks is fundamental to any tactical or operational appreciation of the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq, a strategic

Two years after the beginning of the war in Iraq, much uncertainty and confusion remain regarding the status and direction of the insurgency. This fact has hindered clear discourse about progress, or the lack thereof, in Iraq. For example, much public attention has focused on the number of remaining insurgents