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Military & Security

Policy Analysis on Military & Security

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Brief Analysis
Operation Defensive Shield:
Lessons and Aftermath
The IDF began planning for the contingency of carrying out extensive military operations throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip long before the deployment of Operation Defensive Shield in late March 2002. As early as 1998, during a period when hopes abounded for peace with both the Syrians and the
Jun 18, 2002
Articles & Testimony
The Wrong Models for Tenet
In an effort to resuscitate flat-lining Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, President Bush dispatched CIA Director George Tenet to the region one more time. This time, however, his mission has focused not on obtaining a ceasefire, but on merging the various Palestinian security forces into a coherent, hierarchical, and accountable security and intelligence
Jun 5, 2002
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  • Matthew Levitt
Brief Analysis
Reforming the Palestinian Security Services
Last week, during the visit of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, President George W. Bush announced the need to "immediately begin to help rebuild a security force in Palestine that will fight terror, that will bring some stability to the region." He also stated that Central Intelligence Agency director George
May 15, 2002
Brief Analysis
An International Force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip:
The Security Aspects
On Tuesday, former president Bill Clinton joined others in advocating a U.S.-led international force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Several frameworks for such an intervention have been proposed, ranging from monitoring missions to full-fledged international trusteeship over the territories. Underlying these ideas is a lack of confidence in
May 9, 2002
Brief Analysis
Defensive Shield Counterterrorism Accomplishments
Operation Defensive Shield—the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF's) counterterrorism operation in the West Bank—aims to confiscate illegal weaponry and bombing materiel; destroy factories producing bombs and missiles; constrict the environment in which terrorists plan, prepare, and execute terror attacks; and, most important, apprehend the operatives behind the current terrorist offensive. The
Apr 17, 2002
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  • Matthew Levitt
  • Seth Wikas
Brief Analysis
Israel's Response to Lebanese Border Skirmishes
Since March 28, 2002, the first day of Operation Defensive Shield—Israel's attempt to dismantle the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure—Lebanese Hizballah fighters have attacked northern Israeli settlements and military outposts on an almost daily basis. These unprovoked attacks have included the use of antitank missiles, mortars, katyusha rockets, and antiaircraft weapons directed
Apr 16, 2002
Articles & Testimony
Why Israel's Mission Must Continue
Although Israel's military operation in the West Bank may seem like an emotion-driven reaction to terrorist attacks, it is in fact based on precise intelligence and well-defined military objectives. Thus, while the government appreciates the depth of American strategic support to Israel's security, it has to continue certain aspects of
Apr 12, 2002
Brief Analysis
Operation Defensive Shield:
The Israeli Actions in the West Bank
What has Israel accomplished in its ongoing and large-scale operations in the West Bank? How well have the operations gone from the perspective of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)? The balance sheet is more positive than some accounts have suggested. The Aims and Tactics of the Operations The Netanya Park
Apr 10, 2002
Brief Analysis
Entering the Refugee Camps:
The Israeli Counterterrorist Offensive in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Over the past month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted a large-scale operation in several cities and refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, beginning on the night of February 27 and ending nearly three weeks later with the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Bethlehem and Bet-Jalla on
Mar 22, 2002
Articles & Testimony
Iran and the Palestinian War against Israel:
Implications of the <em>Karine-A</em> Affair
The seizure by Israel of a ship carrying 50 tons of sophisticated weaponry bound for the Palestinian Authority from Iran in early January should send a wake-up call to American policymakers. The threat of terror and war in the Middle East has never been higher. The United States defeated the
Feb 26, 2002
Brief Analysis
Sharon and Buffer Zones
Recriminations between Israelis and Palestinians on whether Israel sufficiently eased restrictions yesterday on the movement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat within Ramallah (in return for the arrest of three Palestinians involved in the killing of an Israeli cabinet minister) have overshadowed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's declaration on Thursday to
Feb 25, 2002
◆
  • David Makovsky
Brief Analysis
Deterioration along the Israel-Lebanon Border
In the past month there have been no less than six incidents in which Hizballah's antiaircraft batteries opened fire against Israeli civilian and military aircraft flying in Israel's northern airspace. This in addition to its repeated and unprovoked attacks on Israeli outposts in the Mount Dov region, next to the
Feb 12, 2002
Brief Analysis
Israeli Defense Policy:
Responding to Challenges Near and Far
"In the new world reality that emerged after September 11, it is easier for everyone to understand that there are no good terrorists and bad terrorists; it is not true that one man's terrorist—as some try to tell us—is another man's 'freedom fighter.' One man's terrorist is everyone's terrorist.
Feb 12, 2002
Articles & Testimony
How to Free Iraq
On September 11, the world changed -- or at least some of it did. Iraq did not. While the rest of the world mourned, or at least nominally condemned the terrorist attack, Iraqi president Saddam Husayn gloated. It is no surprise that Saddam would revel in the suffering of Americans
Feb 1, 2002
America and the Middle East:
Expanding Threat, Broadening Response
Feb 1, 2002
Brief Analysis
The <em>Karine-A</em> Affair:
A Strategic Watershed in the Middle East?
The Palestinian defense budget spending—relative to national income—is higher than that of any Arab country or Iran. This calculation is based on official data that exclude an important part of a state's defense budget—namely, procurement of weapons. The Oslo agreements prohibit the Palestinian Authority (PA) from procuring arms, yet they
Jan 30, 2002
Brief Analysis
The Future of the Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai
Growing U.S. military involvement in new locations such as Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and the Philippines has raised concerns in the Pentagon about overstretching the military and has prompted a call to reassess the future of America's long-standing contribution to peacekeeping missions worldwide. One of the missions at risk of being curtailed
Jan 25, 2002
Brief Analysis
<em>Karine-A:</em>
The Strategic Implications of Iranian-Palestinian Collusion
Revelations of Iranian-Palestinian collusion to smuggle fifty tons of weapons into the hands of Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA) through the offices of Hizballah have profound strategic implications for the Middle East. For the Bush administration, responding appropriately to the Karine-A episode may have unpleasant repercussions for relations with key
Jan 15, 2002
◆
  • Robert Satloff
Brief Analysis
The Seizure of Gaza-Bound Arms (Part II):
Military Implications
Alongside the diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire with Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been involved—since the beginning of the second intifada—in the indigenous production of weapons and ammunition and in repeated attempts to smuggle arms on a massive scale into the territories under its control. To thwart these
Jan 8, 2002
Brief Analysis
The Seizure of Gaza-Bound Arms (Part I):
Political Implications
Israeli naval commandos seized the Gaza-bound freighter Karine-A in the Red Sea last Thursday, exposing a cargo hold containing fifty tons of munitions. The seizure took place in international waters some 300 miles off of Israel's southern coast, between Sudan and Saudi Arabia. The ship's captain, Omar Akkawi, later participated
Jan 8, 2002
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  • David Makovsky

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Military and Security Studies Program

The Washington Institute's Military and Security Studies Program has established itself as an unrivaled source of reliable, incisive, and forward-looking analysis concerning several of the most critical national-security challenges facing the United States today: The U.S. military role in the Middle East, Iran's nuclear program and its proxy armies, the ongoing conflict is in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, the regional proliferation of missiles and weapons of mass destruction, the security dimensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and many other security issues on the frontline of the U.S. policymaking agenda.

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Featured experts

Michael Eisenstadt
Michael Eisenstadt
Michael Eisenstadt is the Kahn Senior Fellow and director of The Washington Institute's Military and Security Studies Program.
Michael Knights
Michael Knights
Michael Knights is the Jill and Jay Bernstein Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute and cofounder of the Militia Spotlight platform, which offers in-depth analysis of developments related to Iran-backed militias.
Grant Rumley
Grant Rumley
Grant Rumley is the Meisel-Goldberger Senior Fellow and Director of the Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation Program on Great Power Competition and the Middle East at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Elizabeth Dent - source: The Washington Institute
Elizabeth Dent
Elizabeth Dent is a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where she focuses on U.S. foreign and defense policy toward the Gulf states, Iraq, and Syria.
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