Gulf States

Qatar, an often-difficult ally, has been actively aiding the Syrian opposition and the Egyptian government, and Washington will likely press Doha to coordinate better on both issues.

Amid embassy warnings and an uptick in violence, Washington should urge the Bahraini government and mainstream political groups to avoid worsening the situation ahead of the upcoming auto race.

Amid uncertain leadership and growing domestic criticism in Saudi Arabia, Washington should press Riyadh to tolerate greater political participation, accelerate the succession discussion, and prevent Iran from exploiting the situation.

Young activists will likely be important agents of structural reform in the small Gulf states, and Washington should make more effort to engage them.

A nuclear-armed Iran could bring Soviet-style intimidation to the Middle East.

Sign up for live event broadcast alerts from The Washington Institute On March 7, 2013, Andrew J. Tabler, Jeffrey White, and Simon Henderson addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute to discuss their recent trips to Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, and the Persian Gulf. Mr. Tabler is a senior

Secretary Kerry is quickly finding out that Gulf leaders view the region's challenges differently from the Obama administration and are not reluctant to show it.

President Saleh's solution to Yemen's "civil-military problematic" (to borrow Peter Feaver's phrase) was to build powerful praetorian units and place his relatives in command of them, a counterproductive approach that ultimately increased the risk that Saleh faced. During Yemen's Arab Spring uprisings, sections of the armed forces not controlled by

Barring an across-the-board change in Tehran's strategic goals, the Iranian people's readiness for regime change, or the scope and immediacy of the Iranian threat to the United States, there is little reason to believe that a policy based exclusively on military action or rapprochement is viable. Therefore, the most reasonable