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Open Think Tank Articles
Daniel Möckli: Switzerland pursues an ambitious Middle East policy that differs from US and EU polices in major ways. This has given rise to controversies lately. There are good reasons for the Swiss to pursue a conflict resolution strategy based on mediation and dialog with Iran and militant Islamist organization
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Jackson Janes: The common threats which Europe and the United States are facing call for immediate collaborative action. Given the interconnectedness of the world today, it is important to apply the lessons learned through transatlantic successes to other regions as well.
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Charles Kupchan and Ray Takeyh: Rather than continuing to pursue strategies which isolate and attempt to contain Iran, the US needs to follow the lead of its Arab Allies, practice diplomacy, and encourage regional integration.
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Leon Hadar: The EU should put its money where its mouth is and work towards inviting both Israel and Palestine to join the EU. With the election of a new US president, Europe could gain more control in the Middle East, but only if it simultaneously accepts more responsibility.
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Benjamin Lucas Schoo: Vote now on what prominent security related issue the governments on both sides of the Atlantic should focus their attention on! We have identified 4 major tasks for 2008 and ask you to select which of these should be at the top of the transatlantic agenda. You can vote now on the right side.
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Alexander Bernhard Bitter: Missile defense for Europe is coterminous with NATO’s mission. The European policy of waiting for a new US administration is flawed, as the financial burden of the endeavor could shift heavily toward Europe.
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Global Must Read Articles
J Street, which emerged as a counterweight to AIPAC, released a new poll indicating that US Jews’ views about the Middle East are considerably more dovish than frequently acknowledged. ++ Large majorities of US Jews favor diplomacy with Iran and support a two-state solution in Palestine. ++ Furthermore, 64 percent said they were in favor of the withdrawal of US military forces from Iraq, while
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President Sarkozy invited many political leaders of the Middle East to help establish the Union for the Mediterranean. ++ But even if the French president likes to pride himself as a peacemaker, the exchange of bodies and prisoners between Hezbollah and Israel makes clear how hopeless the region has become. ++ In the near future, Israel will have a new prime minister and the US a new president.
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Dealing with the Middle East quagmire is going to be one of the greatest challenges for the next US president. ++ McCain may be an ill-suited candidate to tackle the situation: he seems to believe America always wins; since his worldview was shaped by the Vietnam war, he tends to see things in black and white. ++ Obama’s victory would be more welcome in the region: he is more willing to let
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American policymakers in the Middle East know litte about the people there and their perception of the US. ++ A study entitled “Does the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict Still Matter? Analysing Arab Public Perceptions” prooves that “the Arab-Israeli conflict remains a central issue for most Arabs.” ++ The Arab public judges the US according to its policies, not its values. ++ Washington policymakers
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Despite the West’s fear and loathing of America’s perceived overdrawn and poorly executed military initiatives in Iraq, the nation’s expats across the Middle East are singing a different, more optimistic tune. ++ Artists and businessmen alike are looking forward to the day they can return to their homes in hopes of a peaceful era. ++ However, according to many of them, this is
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Coercive diplomacy is America’s only remaining option as its influence declines in the Middle East. ++ Especially in the case of an Obama presidency, this “changed constellation” in the region calls for India to readjust its strategy. ++ India needs to balance Israel and Syria, and constructively engage Iran. ++ Like China, India should acknowledge the region’s importance for its own energy
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The guiding idea that empowering moderates in the Middle East will squelch the appeal of radicals is faulty reasoning. ++ First of all, defining a “moderate” is impossible. ++ A social “moderate” in Egypt, for example, calls for less religion in society, but condones suicide bombings as a legitimate means of diplomacy. ++ Secondly, the record has shown that moderates do
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Perhaps by electing Obama as president, pro-American reformers in the Middle East will no longer feel so alienated. ++ According to expat experiences in Egypt, locals are hoping for an Obama victory because of his ethnicity and Muslim background. ++ Such a groundbreaking turnaround, only seven years after 9/11, would be unthinkable in those Mideastern countries whose futures are buried in the
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The question of whether al Qaeda is engaged in a “leaderless” Jihad or one that is “alive and well” - a fundamental issue when determining US counter-terrorism policy - provides for heated discussions in the US. ++ Al Qaeda is in fact both resilient and disorganized: it has reconstituted itself and spread geographically yet its lack of grassroots supporters and constructive ideology will
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At the Knesset plenum, Bush’s declarations regarding America’s political and military commitment to Israel’s defense were most promising. ++ Yet the Hezbollah’s recent take over of Lebanon was met with absolute silence on behalf of the US and its Allies. ++ “America is tired, emasculated, and torn on the inside. It can only provide its protectorates in the Middle East with words.” ++ Since the US
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During his last Middle East Tour, President Bush will have to accept the failure of his policies in the region. ++ Since Bush undertook to revive peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians at Annapolis in late 2007, no progress has been made. ++ The American hope for a Palestinian-Israeli agreement before the end of the year seems illusory. ++ The positions of Israeli negotiators
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Decades of conflict have created economic, demographic, and political conditions that are compromising achieving peace in the Middle East. ++ Disincentives for the creation of two states are proving stronger than the rationale for peace. ++ Palestinians’ animosity toward Israel, their scarring experience of war and violence, the influence of Islamic groups, and the ever blurrier ethnic and
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Israel’s amazing development over the last 60 years into a regional leader necessitates ending the conflict at home. ++ A strategic alliance with moderate Sunni Arabs in the Middle East is contingent upon Israel’s ability to live peacefully alongside a Palestinian state. ++ At the same time, Palestine must accept and respect its Israeli neighbors. ++ Only in this manner will the
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The Iraq war no longer raises much interest on behalf of the American and European people. ++ Raw US military presence compounded by a lack of regional policies and informed diplomacy with Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Israel has left the country in a stalemate. ++ The next American president will face two options: everlasting peacekeeping or a possible bloodbath at the time of withdrawal.
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Given the current logic of violent retaliation which dominates actions of the weak and divided political systems in Palestine and Israel, there is no foreseeable end to the conflict. ++ Yet if an end to the strangulation of Gaza, a cease-fire with Hamas, and security cooperation with Egypt and Abbas are achieved and followed by democratic elections, most Israelis will show moral commitment to
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It is a misunderstanding of Al Qaeda’s nature and aims that leads to the fear it could implement an Islamic state in Iraq if the US troops were to leave. ++ Al Qaeda is a non-territorial global entity that antagonizes the West, disrupts existing conflicts but cannot coordinate enough key local actors so as to rule a state. ++ In Iraq, it is the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds who play the central role.
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The kinship of tribes is key to building stability and establishing a balance of justice in areas like Iraq and Pakistan with both eroding and nascent political institutions.
The disorderly and anarchic conditions in these countries, says Robert D. Kaplan in The Atlantic, answer to the overlapping actions of multiple groups seeking to maximize their power. In these lawless places, it is not
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Despite sporadic condemnation of terrorism by King Abdullah, Saudi Arabians make-up the bulk of the foreign fighters in Iraq and provide the lion’s share of terrorist finances, write Nick Fielding and Sarah Baxter for the Sunday Times.
The government is accused of failing to penalize promoters of Jihad, such as the country’s Chief Justice, and to reform an educational system imparting hatred
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Ankara’s belligerence threatens Iraq’s fledgling democratic institutions, and encourages other neighbors such as Iran and Syria to settle disputes within Iraqi territory, writes Jamaa Alatwani for the Iraqi newspaper Kitabat.
Cataloged by the European Union and the United States as a terrorist organization, the PKK finds opposition but also support among Iraq’s Kurdish MPs, as some remain
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New French president Nicolas Sarkozy could initiate a historic shift in French Middle East policy, says Pascal Boniface, director of the IRIS Institute for International and Strategic Relations.
For forty years, French policy has been viewed as pro-Arab, an approach which has been attributed to French commercial interests and a large Muslim population. According to Boniface, however,
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