The Khatami Visit and US-Iran Relations
The unusual visit of former Iranian President Khatami to the United States at a time of such uncertainty in US-Iran relations generated strong reactions and unrealistic expectations in many quarters. There are two distinctly different discourses on Iran, and these different worldviews were manifested clearly in the response among key American groups to his visit. […]
The Middle East after the Lebanon War
A shorter version of this paper, commissioned by the Bertelsmann Foundation, is available here. The summer of violence in the Levant has highlighted the many predicaments faced by local, regional and international actors in addressing the sources of Middle East volatility. If anything, this most recent episode demonstrates how the different conflicts that plague the […]
Arab Gulf States: The Iran Complex
This commentary originally appeared in openDemocracy on August 31, 2006. On 31 July 2006, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1696 giving Iran exactly one month – until 31 August – to stop its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities. Iran has responded to the imminent deadline with a flurry of statements and proposals […]
The Challenge of Holding Iraq Together
By Amy Buenning Sturm – The new initiative to secure Baghdad, or as Ambassador Zhalilzad puts it, the “Battle for Baghdad,” is not the only problem facing Iraq. While the debate about Iraq’s civil war continues, important hallmarks of the democracy experiment in Iraq are being largely ignored. Where democratic processes do function, they seem […]
Can an International Force Solve Lebanon’s Woes?
This article first appeared in the Journal of International Peace Operations on September 21, 2006. As the fighting intensifies and the humanitarian crisis deepens in Lebanon, there seems to be a growing consensus among UN, peacekeeping and Middle East experts: without Hezbollahi, Syrian and Iranian consent, the international force envisioned by the United States […]
Edging Towards Reform: Kuwait’s Security Sector
Only time will tell if the May 21 suspension of the Kuwaiti Parliament represents a true political crisis with constitutional implications. Just a few months earlier, Kuwait was widely seen as having achieved new political maturity for the way the system, and the Parliament in particular, managed the transition to the new Emir, Shiekh Sabah.1 […]
Iran’s Calculations and the New Round of Diplomacy
The new round of diplomacy initiated by Condoleezza Rice’s cautious diplomatic overture offers welcome if limited hope for a durable solution to Iran’s nuclear challenge. This and the new package put forward by the P5 and Germany will likely fail to persuade Tehran to suspend its enrichment activities, but they also compel Tehran to decide […]
The Arab Gulf States in the Shadow of the Iranian Nuclear Challenge
Proponents of the 2003 Iraq war anticipated that the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime would dramatically improve security in the Persian Gulf. Under Hussein’s reckless, brutal and risk-taking leadership, Iraq had adopted a threatening posture that precipitated three wars and generated great uncertainty and instability in the region. Yet, contrary to these expectations, prospects for […]