U.S. Policy

PolicyWatch #1594 is the second in a two-part series discussing trends in Somalia. This piece focuses on peacebuilding efforts and Somalia's ties to terrorism, while PolicyWatch #1593 addresses the country's growing insurgency. On September 14, 2009, U.S. special forces killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a senior leader of al-Qaeda's East

Advocates for engaging Hamas often argue that if the group is given a stake in the creation of an independent Palestine by being included in peace negotiations, it will moderate its positions. This co-optation argument is based on the misguided assumption that Hamas is a pragmatic nationalistic movement, motivated primarily

Download the complete proceedings. On October 17, 2009, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Aharon Farkash, Hussain Abdul-Hussain, and Gen. (Ret.) Charles Wald took part in a keynote debate moderated by veteran journalist Bernard Kalb at The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Aharon Farkash, a retired major general in the Israel Defense

Download the complete proceedings. On October 17, 2009, Mohamed Abdelbaky, Nabeel Khoury, and David Pollock addressed The Washington Institute's annual Weinberg Founders Conference. Mohamed Abdelbaky is a Keston visiting fellow at The Washington Institute's Project Fikra, focusing on economic and political reform, democracy, governance, and youth development in the Middle

Iran's nuclear program will be the topic of three important upcoming events: an October 19 meeting of nuclear experts from the P5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany), an October 25 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection of the recently revealed Qom facility, and a follow-up meeting

The need to reform the U.S. national security decision and implementation process is widely acknowledged in Washington. Everyone who has participated in the process at a high enough level understands that whenever a problem spills over the competency boundary of any single bureaucracy (as more and more problems seem to

On October 14, 2009, The Washington Institute honored President William Jefferson Clinton with its 2009 Scholar-Statesman Award .

As the United States continues to fight on multiple fronts to disrupt the efforts of al-Qaeda and its affiliates, the U.S. government has slowly come to realize that military force alone cannot defeat radical Islamist extremism. Today, there is a growing consensus that countering the ideology that drives this extremism

On October 14, the Commission of the European Union (EU) will issue its annual progress report evaluating accession talks with Turkey. The following statements by EU leaders demonstrate the growing uncertainty in the EU -- even among Turkey's friends -- regarding Ankara's ability to reform and join the union. Strong