Middle East

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 […]

Germany is a Vegetarian in a World Full of Carnivores

By Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

While the US, Britain and France are agonising about intervention in Syria, there is no agonising in Germany. A large majority of the electorate wants to stay out of the conflict – and all of the big political parties agree.

Syria: To Melt the Iceberg

By Fred Hof

For President Barack Obama and his national security team, the challenge of ending or mitigating the grave threat posed by a dying Syria to regional and global security will involve more than holstering, surrendering, and destroying an enormous chemical arsenal.

Tunisia’s Questionable War on Terror

By Bassem Bouguerra

Tunisia’s democratic transition has been facing numerous obstacles such as a failing economy and the lack of a transitional justice system, but security has been its main impediment.

Obama’s Goldilocks Syria Plan

By James Joyner

In a speech to the nation, President Obama warned that if the United States does not launch a punitive strike against Syria, Iran will pursue nuclear weapons, Al Qaeda will try to kill Americans, and bad men will do bad things.