Policy Analysis

Palestinian security reform was high on the agenda during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s recent visit to Ramallah. A spike in armed clashes, crime, and demonstrations in the territories has highlighted the issue of law and order among the Palestinian people, who are increasingly concerned about their daily security. On

On June 17, 2005, Jeffrey White participated in a forum titled "Occupied Iraq: One Country, Many Wars," the fortieth installment of the Middle East Policy Council's Capitol Hill Conference Series. The following is an unedited transcript of the entire forum. See video footage of the event. Speakers Ivan Eland Senior

Lebanon’s ongoing parliamentary elections—held in a staggered format through June 19—reflect a new, complex reality for the country. Although free from Syrian tutelage and gerrymandering, the results have been much less encouraging than had been hoped when Syrian troops withdrew. Background: Past Elections The 1990 Taif Accord offered an imperfect

Today, when Iranians go to the polls to elect a new president, the vote will almost certainly be free, competitive, and fair. It will also be a joke. Always inventive, Iran's ruling mullahs years ago developed a new twist on the old autocratic game of holding sham elections. Whereas the

From Newsweek to The New York Times, the Middle East policy buzz du jour is whether the Bush administration will jettison years of precedent and authorize diplomatic contact with Hamas, the radical Islamist movement in the West Bank and Gaza. This is not a hypothetical issue. Running on an anti-corruption

Among the challenges facing the Israeli government in the weeks before the Gaza disengagement commences are relocating evacuated settlers and determining the future of settlement assets. This PeaceWatch will examine the former issue; a future PeaceWatch will address the latter. Settler Compensation On June 9, 2005, the Israeli supreme court

Let there be no doubt: cutting off the flow of funds to Jihadist organisations bent on carrying out acts of violence is critical. Shutting down militant organisations is an important part of that strategy, but undermining the theological foundation of 'economic Jihad' is equally important. Unlike the tactical process of

President Bashar al Assad of Syria has lately seemed to be doing everything possible to make himself an ex-dictator—and this week he took yet another step in that direction. Ironically, his latest mistake was not some egregious act of oppression or deceit—though he has in the past been guilty of

On May 20, 2005, Ahmed Nazif addressed The Washington Institute’s Twentieth Anniversary Soref Symposium. Prior to becoming Egyptian prime minister in July 2004, Dr. Nazif served as the country’s first minister for communications and information technology. In that capacity, he was widely credited with establishing Egypt’s free internet connectivity plan

The British, French, And German foreign ministers met last week with the Iranians and afterward declared that a crisis had been averted. Iran's threat to resume uranium enrichment activities has been put on hold for now. But are we out of the woods? Not likely. In the Paris talks, Hassan

Testimony before the House Committee on International Relations. Read this testimony in Turkish. It is no secret to anyone in this room that these have not been the best of times for U.S.-Turkish relations. Time will tell whether they are the worst. But there is no question that in recent

On May 19, 2005, Paul Wolfowitz addressed the Institute's Twentieth Anniversary Soref Symposium. Dr. Wolfowitz, former deputy secretary of defense, is president of the World Bank. The following is a selection of excerpts from his presentation. Read the full transcript. So many Iraqis, 8.5 million of them, demonstrated courage on

Testimony before the House Committee on International Relations. We have a number of issues to discuss. I would like to focus on three of them, namely: 1. Turkey's importance for the U.S; 2. U.S.-Turkish ties within the context of the ripple effects of the Iraq War; and 3. Turkey's European

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has gone through three distinct political stages. The first stage, which began with the victory of the revolution and ended with the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was a period in which the revolutionary regime was established and consolidated. This stage, which also witnessed

Syrian leaders hope that significant reforms introduced at the Baath Party's Tenth Regional Congress on June 6 will allow them to fend off both domestic challenges and foreign threats. Among the important issues on the Congress' agenda is the status of the Baath Party itself. Obsolete Ideology Since he assumed

As this month's presidential election campaign gets underway in Iran, the Iranian government is emphasizing that the country enjoys the rule of law and elected government. In fact, both statements are false. To understand why the rule of law and representative government are absent in Iran, it is necessary to

While conventional wisdom has identified the Sunni triangle as the most conflict-prone part of Iraq, the decisive battlefield for the country's political future is instead likely to take place in the Shia south. This region is already the scene of low-profile and longstanding struggles for political and theocratic authority. In

Bashar al-Assad's rule of Syria has been characterized by vacillation and a constant pattern of miscalculation. Whether his regime can survive its most profound error and the potential loss of its control of Lebanon remains to be seen. For now, U.S. policy, while emphasizing the need for full implementation of

President George W. Bush welcomed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House Thursday with an unprecedented shower of diplomatic, political, and financial support. Most media attention has focused on two high-profile signs of U.S. backing of Abbas -- Bush's bold characterization of his guest as a "man of

On May 25, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Turkey inaugurated the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC), a major artery linking oil fields in the Caspian Sea region to the Mediterranean Sea and Western markets beyond. It will take several months for oil pumped from Baku, Azerbaijan, to pass through Tbilisi