Arab & Islamic Politics

J. Scott Carpenter, director of The Washington Institute's Project Fikra, gave remarks at an event marking the release of "Unfinished Business: An American Strategy for Iraq Moving Forward," a report to which he contributed as coauthor. In highlighting the report's conclusions, Mr. Carpenter emphasized both the centrality of Iraqi domestic

For thirty years, Iran has sponsored Iraqi paramilitary proxies, demonstrating the Islamic Republic's ability to commission violence within Iraq. In this new article, Washington Institute Lafer fellow Michael Knights discusses the genesis of Iran's current support for "Special Groups" of militant Shia diehards, emphasizing their destabilizing effect on Iraq and

On November 17, 2010, Soner Cagaptay, J. Scott Carpenter, Osman Faruk Logoglu, and Ian Lesser addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute to mark the launch of Regenerating the U.S.-Turkey Partnership, a new Institute Policy Note. Dr. Cagaptay, who coauthored the report with Mr. Carpenter, is director

The quarrel between Ankara and NATO over the proposed missile-defense initiative suggests that Turkey is becoming the Alliance's "opt-out" member in operations in Muslim countries. The governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) has so far refused to host the missile shield because it is directed against potential threats from two

Yesterday, November 17, in the middle of the Eid al-Adha holiday, the Saudi Press Agency announced that Prince Badr, the long-serving deputy commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG), had asked to be relieved from that role due to ill health. Minutes later, the agency announced that Badr's request

On November 17, 2010, Washington Institute executive director Robert Satloff offered Institute trustees immediate insight into the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary study tour to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, and Jordan.

This is the first of a three-part series on Egypt's political future. Read part two and part three. Egypt's parliamentary elections, to be held on November 28, are a dress rehearsal for a much larger event: the 2011 presidential elections. Cairo is currently rife with rumors and National Democratic Party

For the last few months, a forty-three-page Arabic-language booklet has been emailed to Hamas activists in the Gaza Strip and to select members of the group in the West Bank and elsewhere. Titled The Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Revolution in Iran, this new publication represents the most important attempt

While all eyes are fixed on the faltering Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Israel is involved in another diplomatic standoff whose consequences may be just as dire for the future of the Middle East. The impasse in question is between Turkey and Israel -- erstwhile allies whose deteriorating relations undermine the security of