Middle East

Initial Reaction to the Geneva Joint Statement

Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and UN Special Representative Lakhdar just emerged from their discussion about a potential Geneva 2 peace conference to make brief, individual statements. Questions were not taken. According to Kerry, if progress can be made on the chemical issue he and Lavrov would likely meet in […]

Advice to President Obama on Syria

By Fred Hof

At a recent conference I was given the following question to answer: “What advice would you give President Barack Obama and his military advisers as they consider military and diplomatic action with regard to Syria?”  Here, for better or worse, is how I responded:

Echoes of 2011: Media Freedom in Egypt

With former president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster on July 3, Egyptians who took to the streets have bristled at the description of the events as a military coup. They argue that millions called for Morsi’s removal, so it should be described as a popular revolution. The definition of July 3, however, cannot be limited to one […]

President Obama’s Syria Confusion

By Rajan Menon

President Barack Obama’s Tuesday evening speech explaining his plans for a military strike against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, though deftly delivered, will not put to rest the doubts that a large majority of Americans have about what the president aims to achieve with what he insisted would be a limited, targeted operation.

A Plea for Caution From Russia

By Vladimir Putin, New York Times

No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage.

Yemen’s Political Economy: Avoiding a Governance Crisis

With Yemen’s national dialogue scheduled to conclude September 18 and an upcoming Friends of Yemen meeting set for September 25, the Atlantic Council convened a group of Yemen experts to explore what international donors and partners should consider in the next phase of Yemen’s transition. The roundtable discussion on September 12, 2013, featured a presentation […]