دمکراسی و اصلاح

On January 12, 2007, Joe Klein and Martin Walker addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Joe Klein, the author of the bestseller Primary Colors, writes the "In the Arena" column about national and international affairs for Time magazine. Martin Walker is the editor emeritus of United Press International, and

The wise men (and woman) don't know their history. In boldly suggesting that "all key issues in the Middle East are inextricably linked," the authors of the Iraq Study Group report seem stunningly indifferent to the past 25 years of Middle East politics. The basic proposition -- linkage -- is

Virtually no corner of the world remains immune to the threat of radical Islamists. Africa, Asia, Europe, the two Americas -- in different ways, using different means, and operating under different guises, jihadists of various stripes have waged war against "infidels" (America, Israel, the West) and "apostates" (non-Islamist Muslims) around

American public diplomacy in the Middle East did not have a good week. An Arabic-speaking State Department official named Alberto Fernandez made news on October 21 when he spoke too candidly about U.S. missteps in Iraq on Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite television channel based in Qatar. Not only was

On October 20, 2006, eighty-three-year-old King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced changes to the kingdom's "Basic Law" -- effectively its constitution -- that appear to formalize procedures for the selection of future kings. However, it is difficult to know how much the current system of succession will actually change. For

Lebanon has secured pledges for assistance roughly equal to its $3.6 billion estimate of what is required to rebuild from the recent war. Though foreign assistance will be an important element in the short-term physical reconstruction, it will do little to help Beirut contend with the longstanding structural maladies afflicting

On July 25, 2006, Robert Satloff and David Pollock addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. Dr. Satloff is the executive director of The Washington Institute and the author most recently of the Institute monograph Assessing What Arabs Do, Not What They Say: A New Approach to Understanding Arab Anti-Americanism

Instead of focusing on what Arab publics say, this study argues, U.S. policy would be better informed by paying close attention to what Arab publics do.

Has America abandoned the cause of democracy in the Middle East? Recent events give plenty of reason for concern. Last month in Egypt, police beat hundreds of anti-Mubarak demonstrators, while in Syria the Assad regime rounded up civil-society activists. The White House issued only a relatively perfunctory condemnation of Egypt