The Obama Administration’s Middle East policy appears to have swung from the slightly idealistic to the definitively realistic in recent weeks, with the opposition continuing to denounce the supposed naiveté of the president’s intentions. Barack Obama began his offensive in Cairo, Egypt last year where he called upon the Muslim world to end “the cycle […]
There was some troubling news coming out of Kabul last week. Afghan President Hamid Karzai not only invited his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to come visit; he supposedly told guests at the presidential palace recently that the Americans had invaded his country in order to dominate the region and that as such, they pose an […]
President Kurmanbek Bakiyev flees the capital.
A new bilateral relationship is emerging across the Near East as India and Saudi Arabia strengthen their ties. The desert kingdom has grown to become India’s foremost supplier of crude oil while the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh realizes that the nation’s security is very much dependent on stability in the Middle East. Relations […]
Bankers and bureaucrats want peaceful ties. Hardliners are convinced the West is conniving to keep them poor.
The economic factor tends to be overlooked in discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It shouldn’t be.
American secretary of state Hillary Clinton returned empty handed from Brazil earlier this month with President Lula da Silva’s government unwilling to support tougher sanctions on Iran. Brazil has long maintained that it wants proof of Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions before it agrees to push for sanctions with the United Nations. Part of the reason […]
What has largely been missing from recent discussions of Russia’s military doctrine is the role that China will play in its security.
Sanctions and negotiations aren’t working anymore. Iran is determined to acquire the Bomb so the West must start thinking ahead. How to deal with a nuclear Iran? “Containing” the country has been suggested before, specifically by cutting Iran’s financial ties abroad and quietly working to destabilize the regime from within. Last December, Danielle Pletka of […]
David Petraeus asks that the Palestinian territories be placed under his Central Command.
Pestering China won’t get America anywhere. It must be consistent in its policy of “strategic reassurance”.
The region still far outperforms Europe and the United States in terms of economic growth.
It wasn’t too long ago that NATO’s post-Cold War purpose seemed perfectly clear. During the Clinton Administration, the United Stated led allies in humanitarian efforts around the world but in Europe’s backyard especially. Up to this very day, Western forces are actively engaged in peacekeeping in former Yugoslavia and, of course, in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan […]
Just a couple of decades ago the naval forces of China (People’s Liberation Army Navy or PLAN) was a weakling, barely capable of defending the Chinese Coast. Hong-Kong, a British station until 1997, was almost considered secure by naval if not military means even with just a few British warships at the station. Since then […]
Europe may be reluctant to embrace Turkey but the country is well underway to establishing itself as a regional power. As a gateway to the West, it engages with nearby Middle Eastern states, signing free-trade agreements with Egypt, Israel, Morocco and Tunisia. It is currently in negotiations with the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, to […]
