U.S. Policy

Meaning of the ElectionThe Israeli people spoke in the most dramatic and convincing fashion. Viewed in the U.S. context, Ariel Sharon won a larger share of the vote 62.5 percent than any presidential candidate in history. Essentially, Israel voted to express one word: "enough!" enough violence, enough concessions, enough perception

Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are emerging as one of the first major foreign policy challenges of the Bush administration. Free of weapons monitors and with sanctions eroding, Iraq has resumed its aggressive policies. After the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada last September, it briefly moved elements

After much experimentation, the Clinton administration settled on a policy of incremental normalization with Iran, whereby the United States and Iran would gradually improve their relations through mutual concessions and confidence-building measures. As the Bush team assesses policy options towards Iran, it is important to note the meager results of

While the White House has made no comment on the substance of President Bill Clinton’s proposal for Israeli-Palestinian peace, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and the Palestinian Jerusalem Media and Communication Center (JMCC) have published what they say are respectively the Israeli and Palestinian minutes of the president’s December 23 oral

The Presidential Study Group -- a bipartisan, blue-ribbon commission of statesmen, diplomats, legislators, scholars, and experts -- was convened in Spring 2000 to examine the state of the Middle East and the effectiveness of U.S. policy in advancing U.S. interests in that important region. George W. Bush takes office at

When Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat meets with President Clinton tomorrow, his message will be, "The Oslo accords are dead long live the Arab-Israeli peace process!" For Clinton, the priority should be to reject a new form of "peace process" that could make a bad situation even worse. That Oslo is

Saudi decision-makers would be well advised to examine what lies behind the deep U.S. concern about oil prices. America is more worried about a politically-motivated crisis than about the usual market manipulation, writes Patrick Clawson, director for research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The smaller part of

If passed, a non-binding resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives calling upon the U.S. government to recognize the "Armenian genocide" as historical fact will sour U.S.-Turkish relations at a time when bilateral ties are more vulnerable than they have been for years and when Turkish support for U.S. policies

The fact that U.S. and Israeli officials--not Yasir Arafat--announced that the Palestinian leader had ordered a halt to violence in the West Bank and Gaza highlights the failure of the U.S.-led summit meeting in Paris. This underscores the prospect that the al-Aqsa Intifada--as Palestinians have termed the week-long spasm of