Policy Analysis

Introduction The hearing today is on an important topic that has not always received the public attention it deserves. Understandably, in the terrorism arena, most of the focus over the past five years has been on al-Qaeda and its affiliates, and what governments are doing to combat their terrorist activities

Nothing is more basic to statecraft than matching objectives and means. Sounds elementary, but it is not necessarily the norm in our foreign policy. Look at Iraq: It is the emblem of a policy that too often has been shaped by a mismatch between objectives and means. The administration's assessment

Hamas's victory in Gaza last week was a military coup of Fatah's security forces -- not a Palestinian civil war involving the majority of each faction's supporters. Fatah's armed forces collapsed in the face of a long-planned, well-executed campaign targeting the headquarters and leadership of the faction's security organizations. The

In January, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice proclaimed her seriousness about trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. She declared that she had heard the calls of many of her colleagues internationally for the United States to become active again and push for Middle East peace. Since then, she has taken

On June 18, 2007, Robert Satloff, executive director of The Washington Institute, addressed the Institute's special Policy Forum, along with Ghaith al-Omari, Robert Malley, and David Makovsky. The following are Dr. Satloff's remarks as prepared for delivery. Video of all speakers' remarks is available using the video link at right

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic party, now controls Gaza. The secular Fatah party has been routed. The result will be an Islamic statelet on Israel's southern border, dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state. It will exist in legal limbo -- not occupied by Israel but having most of its

On June 11, 2007, Dennis Ross and Thomas Friedman addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Ambassador Ross, the Institute's counselor and Ziegler distinguished fellow, is a former U.S. Middle East peace envoy and author of the just-released book Statecraft, And How to Restore America's Standing in the World (2007)

As the United Nations formulates the next round of sanctions against Iran, it should consider including something missing from the two earlier Security Council resolutions on the country. The addition of an independent monitoring team, which the United Nations has used effectively in its sanctions against Sudan, Somalia, Liberia and

From high-level diplomatic tours to multilateral summits in Baghdad and Sharm al-Sheikh, Washington has devoted increasing attention to Iraq's Arab neighbors. Yet, although speculation about the role of regional states in stabilizing Iraq has become something of a cottage industry in Washington, much of this analysis has focused on non-Arab

Yesterday's car bombing in Beirut, which killed Future Party parliamentarian Walid Eido, underscores the Syrian-backed multifront campaign to undermine stability in Lebanon. One front is the Palestinian refugee camps, particularly Nahr al-Bared, where the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) are currently fighting Fatah al-Islam, an al-Qaeda affilate with ties to Syria

On June 8, a day after reports that Turkish troops had crossed into northern Iraq to pursue members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Iranian aircraft bombed the camps of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), also in northern Iraq. PJAK, which operates in the mountains of northern

How did it come to pass that, not so long after 9/11 brought the free world to our side, U.S. foreign policy is in a shambles? In this thought-provoking book, the renowned peace negotiator Dennis Ross argues that the Bush administration's problems stem from its inability to use the tools

Three veteran American diplomats reflect on the fortieth anniversary of the Six-Day War at an Institute forum in 2007.

When one looks at U.S. foreign policy and our standing in the world today, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Bush administration has not exactly excelled in the exercise of statecraft. Good statecraft matches objectives and means. Poor statecraft does not. Look at the administration's signature issues

Yesterday, the Associated Press (AP) reported that thousands of Turkish troops had crossed into northern Iraq to pursue members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an organization on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. Later, the AP corrected this, reporting that only a few hundred Turkish troops were

On May 30, 2007, Barry Rubin and Theodore Kattouf addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Professor Rubin, a visiting fellow at the Institute, is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA), and author of the just-released

On June 4, 2007, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy held a symposium marking the fortieth anniversary of the June 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The purpose of the symposium was to grapple with the failure of U.S.-led diplomacy on the eve of the war, exploring

On May 10, 2007, President Bush and U.S. Treasury secretary Henry Paulson launched an "open investment" initiative to encourage foreign investment in the U.S. economy. In a statement, the president emphasized that his administration "is committed to ensuring that the United States continues to be the most attractive place in

President Bush is in Europe this week, where his meetings -- several of which are directly linked to aspects of U.S. Middle East policy -- represent important opportunities to build diplomatic bridges. Today, he visits Prague to address a democracy promotion conference organized by former Czech president Vaclav Havel, former

In several days of discussions in Jerusalem and Ramallah recently, I was struck by the nature of the debate I witnessed in both places. To my surprise, it wasn't about the stalemate in the peace process or the Arab peace initiative. It was about the conflict between Palestinian organizations in