Middle East

Second Annual Members’ Conference – The U.S. – Iran Relationship: How to handle a nuclear Iran?

Summary of the breakout conversation “The U.S. – Iran Relationship: How to handle a nuclear Iran?” at the 2010 Annual Members’ Conference. Participants: Barbara Slavin, Author, Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation Michael Singh, Former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs, National Security Council Moderated by Mark Brzezinski, […]

U.S.-Iran Relations Event Transcript

U.S.-Iran Relations Event Speakers: Damon Wilson, Vice President and Director, International Security Program, Atlantic Council C. Richard Nelson, Project Director, Reversing Relations with Adversaries Program, Atlantic Council Kenneth Katzman, Specialist in Middle East Affairs, Congressional Research Service Flynt Leverett, Senior Research Fellow, New America Foundation George Perkovich, Vice President for Studies and Director, Nuclear Policy […]

Iran Debate Event Transcript

Iran Debate Event Speakers: Frederick Kempe, President and CEO, Atlantic Council David Ignatius, Columnist, Washington Post Michael Ledeen, Freedom Scholar, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Flynt Leverett, Senior Research Fellow, New American Foundation

Assessing the Yemen Strikes in the Short-Term and Long-Term

By Bernard Finel

I keep harping on our lack of strategic thinking in the United States.  I know many people consider this an academic exercise, as in (paraphrasing): “Ivory toward academic Bernard Finel keeps suggesting we consider strategy explicitly, but the reality is that we have a complex threat environment and receive plenty of guidance from senior leaders […]

What to Do about Yemen?

By Don Snow

The revelations that the Ft. Hood massacre committed by US Army Major Nidal Malik Hassan and the Christmas underwear bombing attempt by Nigerian Umar Frouk Abdulmutallab may have been inspired by the rhetoric of an expatriate American living in Yemen (Anwar al-Maliki) placed that poor country on the southern end of the Arabian peninsula in […]

Yemen Latest Front in Mad Max War

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Yemen, where al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has several hundred jihadi terrorists sheltered by anti-Saudi tribal chiefs, has been getting less than $70 million a year in U.S. assistance. Afghanistan, whence Arab jihadis decamped years ago, runs U.S. taxpayers $82 million a day. The would-be Nigerian suicide bomber Umaru Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, who tried […]

What Yemen Tells Us About Afghanistan

By Douglas Farah

The recent and growing attention to the critical situation in Yemen, where al Qaeda’s presence is spreading and the government is weak and does not control much of the physical space, is perhaps the best argument for pursuing a vigorous Afghanistan policy.

Iranian Westernization a Western Pipe Dream

By Don Snow

The ability of Americans to believe that Iran secretly wants to be just like us but is repressed by unrepresentative political candidates never ceases to amaze me. The dynamic is at work once again surrounding the funueral of “dissident” Grand Ayatollah Mir Hussein Montazeri.

Iraqi Oil Contracts: Did America Lose Out?

By Don Snow

The announcement last week that the Iraqi government had awarded foreign contracts for the exploitation of a number of its oil fields created a remarkably mild, one-day reaction in the popular press. The gist of the awards, of course, was that virtually everybody, from the Russians and Chinese to the Malaysians and Angolans, were given […]