All Policy Analysis by رابرت ستلوف

The fact that U.S. and Israeli officials--not Yasir Arafat--announced that the Palestinian leader had ordered a halt to violence in the West Bank and Gaza highlights the failure of the U.S.-led summit meeting in Paris. This underscores the prospect that the al-Aqsa Intifada--as Palestinians have termed the week-long spasm of

With a couple of minor exceptions, there was scant criticism of U.S. policy by Arab leaders. Contrary to expectation, officials from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian Authority volunteered very few complaints. Israel's discontent with the relationship, on the other hand, was manifest and unmistakable. Israeli representatives from both ends

There have been at least seven agreements between Israel and the Palestinians in the past seven years. Negotiations with intermittent spurts of violence have been a way of life. Any new agreement will not be about an end to the conflict: The original 1993 agreement specified such an end, with

When Mideast peace talks convene at Camp David on Tuesday, President Clinton will need to bring more to the table--from members of Congress to carrots, from senators to sticks--than he has so far brought to Arab-Israeli peacemaking. With "Camp David II," the United States begins a journey into unknown Mideast

Hafiz al-Asad was a cautious and calculating leader, but he had not completed the steps to guarantee a smooth succession to his son Bashar by the time of his death. Nevertheless, Bashar al-Asad will probably become Syria’s next president. There are no significant or immediate threats to his accession. Some

Palestinian Authority (PA) president Yasir Arafat meets President Bill Clinton today strengthened by the death of Syria’s Hafiz al-Asad, whose funeral Arafat attended Tuesday. An Arafat buoyed and more confident by the death of his longtime nemesis adds a new wrinkle to an already complex game of brinkmanship that constitutes

President Clinton's trip to Geneva on Sunday to meet Syrian leader Hafiz al-Asad begins the last leg of the administration's eight-year marathon effort to broker an elusive Syrian-Israeli peace agreement. The stakes, however, are higher than just Clinton's peacemaking legacy. While most observers believe that Syria and Israel are just

To many observers, the stars are aligned to see the final resolution of the century-old Arab–Israeli conflict in the millennium year of 2000. But in a region which too often accents romance over realism, more sober analysts will underscore the wide gaps which still divide the parties, the national and

A key question regarding this half-British, largely American-reared monarch is how "Americanized" he is. He certainly has American tastes in entertainment (U.S. sitcoms) and pastimes (arcade video games). More importantly, he evinces more interest in 21st century issues like globalization and the need for sustained market reform than in 20th

After leaving Davos as one of the stars of the World Economic Forum this week, King Abdullah returns to a country that, in 1999, registered its fourth negative real growth rate in a row. Indeed, from the beginning of his rule, Jordan's new monarch has recognized that confronting Jordan's deep

The following is a sidebar to Dr. Satloff's article "The Next Turbulent Zone." The election of Ehud Barak fueled expectations of speedy success in the peace process, on both the Palestinian-Israeli track and the Syrian/Lebanese-Israeli track. Yet while progress is likely, a final resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict is not

The following is a sidebar to Dr. Satloff's article "The Next Turbulent Zone." Given current trends, Iraq will emerge as the foremost national security albatross around the neck of the next administration. Since the Clinton administration's welcome, if belated, 1998 declaration of "regime change" as a key goal in Iraq

The following is a sidebar to Dr. Satloff's article "The Next Turbulent Zone." Iran's great internal debate over its future, as evidenced in recent confrontations between demonstrating students and police, is likely to sharpen and deepen in the next five years. The two protagonists here are not, as often reported

Syria-Israel negotiations are on hold, but Israelis and Syrians have found a way to negotiate through third parties--the media. Two weeks ago, Israel leaked the U.S. draft text of a proposed peace treaty, complete with a timeline for implementation, in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. Over the last ten days, a

After more than a week of negotiations in Shepherdstown, W.Va., the "working draft" of the Syria-Israel peace treaty reported in yesterday's Ha'aretz notes only one area of seemingly irreconcilable difference between the two parties--over the scope of the demilitarized zone separating the two sides. As currently worded, the text neither

The millennial year opened on a high note for U.S. diplomacy, with Syria-Israel peace talks convening yesterday in Shepherdstown, W.Va. Unlike the other two participants, however, Washington has so far not indicated what it wants from these negotiations or what it is willing to pay to get it. Although Washington

After a half-decade in which the Balkans, Central Africa, and East Asia were the hottest spots on the globe, the Middle East--including North Africa--is likely to assert itself over the next five years as a zone of turbulence. Some of the turmoil will be fueled by the irredentism left over

THOMAS FRIEDMAN International Context: Syria's position must be viewed within the system of globalization that has replaced the previous Cold War order. The rules of the globalization system are qualitatively different from those of the Cold War and will influence the politics and economics of all states. Whereas the Cold

On December 1, Mu'awyeh Al-Masri, a Palestinian legislator from Nablus, was shot in the leg by a group of masked men in broad daylight. This mafia-style "kneecapping" was the culmination of several days of arrests and protests in the Palestinian Authority (PA) which followed the distribution of a leaflet accusing

ROBERT SATLOFF General Observations Meetings with the four leaders--Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, and Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Yasir Arafat--underscore the vitality of regional leadership. All seemed healthy, engaged, self-assured, and in command. Barak is clearly a man with a mission, convinced