Iraq: Issues on the horizon
This analysis appeared in the October 23, 2003 edition of Bitterlemons International. With the unexpected unanimous passage of a new United Nations Security Council resolution on Iraq, the international community is closer to consensus about how to proceed in assisting Iraq to build a new political system. There is nominal agreement that Iraqis should move […]
The Iraq War: Views from North Africa
During a short visit to Tunisia on the eve of the Baghdad “tipping point” in the war, I was exposed to the emotions and intellectual churning in a modern Arab society that have been stimulated by the American campaign to achieve regime change and more in Iraq. Discussions with diverse elite figures, government and private, […]
While America Slept: Understanding Terrorism and Counterterrorism
In this essay which originally appeared in the January/February 2003 edition of Foreign Affairs, Ellen Laipson reviews The Age of Sacred Terror, a book by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon. Laipson states that The Age of Sacred Terror vividly recounts how al Qaeda emerged and how America responded. The book reiterates the sobering history that […]
Assessing the Long-Term Challenges
From, “How to Build a New Iraq after Saddam.” Republished with the permission of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy As Washington debates policies for regime change in Iraq, the question of when change occurs may ultimately prove more important than how it occurs. Military strategists and planners are focusing on invasion scenarios, and pundits […]
Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
In recent years, international concern about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the Middle East has increased significantly. The actual use of chemical agents by Iraq, the active accumulation of WMD by Iran, Iraq, and Libya, and the introduction of long range surface-to surface missiles (SSMs) into the region have leant greater […]
Intelligence and the Middle East: What Do We Need to Know
To provide a framework for reviewing the intelligence community’s work on the Middle East, The Washington Institute convened a special Policy Forum panel discussion on February 16, 1995. Ellen Laipson was part of panel of regional experts and intelligence officials from the National Security Council, the Department of State and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Laipson’s […]
Iranian National Security Policies under the Islamic Republic: New Defense Thinking and Growing Military Capabilities
Since the end of the Iran-Iraq War, and particularly sincethe defeat oflraq in the Gulf War, Western observers have periodically gestured with alarm at the rearmament program of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). Some have addressed the potentially adverse consequences for the West of the flow of dual-use technology into Iran and worry that […]
Turkey’s Political and Security Interests and Policies in the New Geostrategic Environment of the Expanded Middle East
The phasing out of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union have changed the geopolitical environment around Turkey radically. In fact, Turkey has been touched more deeply than many other countries by the sweeping repercussions of these historic developments in world politics. Its strategic location links Turkey to the northern Middle East […]