Oil Legislation in Iraq: A Step Towards Stability
By Ronan McGee – Oil is pivotal to the long-term stability and prosperity of Iraq. Its estimated 115 billion barrels are the world’s third largest proven oil reserves, and Iraq hopes to raise its present output of 2.5 million barrels per day to 6 million barrels per day. Such efforts will likely be accelerated as […]
Covert Operations in Iran
By Carrielyn O’Connell – Iran’s nuclear program has led the international community to fear that Iran is seeking, and may acquire in a few years, a nuclear weapon capability. The US and its allies have sought to engage Iran diplomatically on the issue, but neither diplomacy nor sanctions have so far succeeded in persuading Iran […]
Losing the Meaning of Jihad: Terrorism and the US Media
By Allie Kirchner – During his trip to India, President Barack Obama visited St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, where he answered a student’s question about jihad: “I think all of us recognize that this great religion in the hands of a few extremists has been distorted to justify violence toward innocent people that is never […]
Diplomacy and Demining: A Panel Discussion about Demining in Israel: Featuring Daniel Yuval
More than 500,000 landmines and other explosive remnants of war contaminate over 200 million square meters of land in Israel. When eleven-year old Daniel Yuval lost his leg to one of those landmines last February, in the Golan Heights, the Israeli public woke up to the need to demine these remnants of war. This year, […]
Ellen Laipson offers thoughts on Iran for USIP’s Iran Primer
On December 1, USIP will release The Iran Primer, which brings together 50 top experts-both Western and Iranian-to offer comprehensive but concise overviews of Iran’s politics, economy, military, foreign policy, and nuclear program. Ellen Laipson contributed a chapter to the book and responded to the following questions in preparation for its launch. Why are the upcoming […]
Engagement, Coercion, and Iran’s Nuclear Challenge
US Iran policy has been long on the tactics and techniques of sanctions, and short on a clear, coherent, strategic vision of the kind of US-Iranian relationship Washington ultimately wants. Without defining that vision – and the most effective balance of incentives and punitive measures needed to get there – US policy toward Iran will continue to […]
Engagement, Coercion, and Iran’s Nuclear Challenge
US Iran policy has been long on the tactics and techniques of sanctions, and short on a clear, coherent, strategic vision of the kind of US-Iranian relationship Washington ultimately wants. Without defining that vision – and the most effective balance of incentives and punitive measures needed to get there – US policy toward Iran will continue to […]
Memo to Mr Obama: Gulf Security and Why it Matters
Dear President Obama, As you review the foreign policy legacy of your predecessor you will find much to discard, amend or reform. But one set of policies deserves preservation as you complement them with renewed and direct diplomacy with Iran: the approach to Gulf security that the Bush administration embraced in its last years promotes […]