Policy Analysis

This morning, the text of the long-awaited Mitchell Commission Report, an account of the past seven months of Israeli-Palestinian violence written by a five-member committee headed by former Senate majority leader George Mitchell, was made publicly available. Conceived as a "committee of fact finding" at the October 17, 2000 Sharm

Today's decision by Iranian president Mohammad Khatami to run for re-election was more important than the actual election on June 8, which he is sure to win. But neither matters nearly as much as the crucial question for Iran's future namely, will hardliners let the formal government rule or will

On May 1, 2001, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. The following are excerpts from his remarks. Read a full transcript. Overview of the Current Situation "We are passing through a very demanding corridor of politics and exchanges, of an emotional crisis of blame

On April 21, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Shaykh Abd al-Aziz bin Abdallah Aal al-Shaykh, said that Islam forbids suicide terrorist attacks. This has raised a storm of criticism from supporters of the Palestinian intifada against Israel. However, the mufti may have been thinking more about Osama bin Laden

Not long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a chorus of influential opinion-makers in Washington began to sound an alarm about a new ideological threat posed to the West: the spread of "Islamism," a virulent brand of political Islam whose adherents demonized the culture, governments and even the citizens

Russia and Iran are neighboring states. As such, the status of their bilateral relationship is a perpetually important facet of their respective foreign policies. In the post-Soviet period, Tehran and Moscow began to view and term their cooperation as "strategic"—each side viewing the other as integral to its own national

Reviews the eighteen recommendations made by Turkey's National Security Council on February 28, 1997, designed to stem the perceived growth of Islamism in the country. Also analyzes the numerous actions taken to implement these recommendations in subsequent years. Includes an English translation of the full text of the recommendations (NSC

On May 1, 2001, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Following is the full text of the discussion. Read a summary of his remarks. Note: The questions from the Q&A portion of the discussion have been summarized. The Institute's interpretations of partially audible portions

On April 30, the Department of State issued its comprehensive annual report Patterns of Global Terrorism, describing incidents and trends in international terrorism in the year 2000. This year's report covers the first three months of accelerated Palestinian-Israeli violence. It is also marks the first time the Bush administration State

On April 27, 2001, Israeli minister of education Limor Livnat delivered a keynote address at The Washington Institute's Sixteenth Annual Soref Symposium. The following are excerpts from her speech. Read a full transcript. The End of Oslo " . . . The political road that brought us to the crossroads

I want to thank the Washington Institute for inviting me to address this distinguished forum today. This invitation was accompanied by a request that my speech concentrate on the future. I have no problem with that request, of course. I like to think of myself as a forward-thinking person who

I want to thank Bob Asher for the kind introduction. I also want to thank Rob Satloff and The Washington Institute for extending the invitation to me to address this distinguished forum. I'm delighted to be here. Rob's invitation was accompanied with the request that my speech concentrate on the

I hope that I will be able to contribute a little bit to the ongoing learning process that has been taking place at this symposium. This will be a difficult task, though, because there is a great deal of misinformation here regarding what has been happening in our region and

I shall try to be as brief as possible in order to leave more time for questions and answers. Six months have gone by since the outbreak of the violence between Palestinians and Israelis, so Robert Satloff has asked me to review the conflict up to its present stage from

Robert Satloff, The Washington Institute: Let me open, Senator, by turning to you. It is, as they say, approaching the 100-day mark. How would you evaluate the direction that the Bush administration has taken so far vis-Ã -vis the Middle East? Sam Brownback: I really don't think that the Bush

Keynote discussion between The Honorable Lawrence S. Eagleburger and The Honorable Richard Perle; keynote address with The Honorable Limor Livnat; roundtable discussion between Senator Sam Brownback, General Brent Scowcroft, Jim Hoagland, and Dennis Ross; and discussion between Ze'ev Schiff and Ghassan Khatib.

Robert Satloff, The Washington Institute: As we have begun to do in the last few years for some of the programs in the Soref Symposium, we are dispensing with formal presentations so as to have enough time for informal remarks and give-and-take exchanges. So let me just open up with

The last two days have witnessed "The International Conference on the Palestinian Intifada" in Tehran. The conference was a major step in Iran's drive to accelerate terrorist attacks on Israel. Delegates to the conference came from thirty-four countries, including Syrian vice president Muhammad Zahir Mosahareqa, Lebanese National Assembly Speaker Nabih

A preview of Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri's first visit to Washington since returning to office in September 2000.

Among the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, there are three perspectives as to why violent confrontations began in September: 1) The Camp David II negotiations uncovered underlying differences in Israeli and Palestinian interests that are simply unbridgeable. Recent confrontations are basically the product of these differences. In