Democracy & Reform

President-elect Barack Obama's administration faces difficult choices regarding its policy toward Turkey. Should Washington choose sides in Turkey's protracted struggle over secularism and democracy involving the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its opponents? Can the United States bring the reluctant AKP to support U.S. efforts against Iran's nuclear

On January 9, 2009, David Brooks, Peter Beinart, and Robert Satloff addressed a Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute to discuss the Obama administration and its likely approach to the Middle East. Dr. Satloff is executive director of the Washington Institute; the following is a summary of his remarks

Iranian hardliners are using the Gaza Strip crisis as an opportunity to restate their claim as the true Muslim leaders by denouncing Arab governments as complicit with Israel, stirring up the regime's supporters throughout the world, and suppressing Iranian civil society groups. Iran, while facing international pressure over its nuclear

This timely collection of brief essays urges the Obama administration to follow three clear guidelines in Arab-Israeli diplomacy. First, do not overreach for a full agreement right away, but launch an effective U.S. peacemaking role -- active, yet patient and incremental. Second, outflank Hamas. This means maintaining the perfectly valid

The upcoming provincial elections in Iraq, scheduled for January, will provide the best indicators to date of the health of Iraq's political system, the relative popularity of political parties, and Prime Minister al-Maliki's prospects for re-election in national elections planned for December 2009. Iraqis have been concerned by the delay

On October 29, 2008, Jean-Pierre Filiu and Mehdi Khalaji addressed a Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute. Mr. Filiu, a former French diplomat and ministerial advisor, currently serves as a visiting professor at Georgetown University. Mehdi Khalaji is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute. The following is a

Saudi king Abdullah is in the United States this week to discuss issues of considerable interest to both countries. Tomorrow and Thursday, he is in New York City for an interfaith meeting he is sponsoring and which President Bush will be attending. On Friday and Saturday, the Saudi monarch will

U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has decided to skip the Forum for the Future in Abu Dhabi this weekend, a move that will deepen concerns surrounding the Bush administration's Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) Initiative. Although Deputy Secretary John Negroponte will attend the forum -- an annual

Robert Satloff and Martin Kramer addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference on September 20, 2008, to introduce the inaugural awards of the Institute's Book Prize. Michael Mandelbaum, who with eminent Middle East historian Bernard Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim Hoagland juried the Book Prize, announced the winning books