The Middle East through a New Prism – Part II Almost everyone involved in national security affairs, within and outside the government, talks about the threat that Iran poses to U.S. interests in the Middle East as follows: -    Iran was responsible for terrorist attacks against the United States in 1983 in Lebanon -    Iran [...]

The presidential elections of June have brought to the surface, like never before, the deep rifts that exist within Iranian society and its power structure.  What is really happening there? And more importantly, what should the United States do about it?  The delicate and serious nature of the current situation in Iran requires a very [...]

Time Is Running Out In several Security Debrief posts published on this site in 2007 and 2008, I discussed the great urgency required by the United States to adopt a different strategy towards Pakistan and I also articulated the options and steps necessary to stop Pakistan’s fast slide towards instability.  Unfortunately, the United States has [...]

ASMEA, the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, held its second annual conference in the Washington area on October 22 – 24, 2009. More than 50 scholarly papers have been selected for presentation at this well-attended and successful conference. The luncheon keynote speaker on Friday, October 23rd was Professor Bernard Lewis. [...]

On July 11, 1947, a ship carrying more than 4,000 Jews sailed from the south of France and headed to Palestine. The Zionist movement endeavoring to create the State of Israel as a home for the Jews sought to “break the embargo imposed by Great Britain on immigration to Palestine.” On July 18, British naval [...]

The United States has ignored for too long the brewing turmoil in Pakistan. All signs point to the possibility of civil war breaking out in Pakistan in the very near future. The ingredients for such a war are already in place: President Musharraf’s power has been seriously weakened; there is a major rift among elements [...]

History is a Prologue The Middle East has undergone a sea change at the geostrategic level, presenting U.S. policymakers with a new set of serious challenges. Today’s Middle East order is being shaped by these fundamental realities: Egypt and Jordan are no longer key shapers of regional politics and are fast becoming irrelevant to the [...]

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto will unfortunately speed up the destabilization of Pakistan for the following reasons: • Bhutto’s supporters will blame President Musharraf for her death, making a rapprochement with Musharraf very difficult. Bhutto had repeatedly requested adequate security measures from the government of Pakistan but was constantly denied that protection. • Sharif on [...]

In Part I of this series, we discussed the emergence of a U.S. strategy towards the Middle East built on two pillars – Oil Security and Israel Security – and the introduction of a third pillar in support of the first two – the Peace Process. In this part, we explore the impact of regional [...]

On the eve of President Bush’s historic visit to the Middle East, a question that Americans concerned with foreign policy should be asking themselves is: what Middle East?Irrespective of one’s past or present positions on the Iraq war and how the United States got there, the reality is that the war has transformed the political [...]