In-Depth Coverage

Original Commentaries

11/20/08: Pakistan: Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq —Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.
11/13/08: The View from Gaza —Taghreed El-Khodary, New York Times journalist in Gaza and Harvard University Nieman Fellow (2005-2006). Interviewed by Middle East Bulletin.
11/04/08: Getting on the Right Track —Dalia Rabin, chairperson, Rabin Center, and daughter of the late Yitzhak Rabin. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.

Setting the Record Straight

Keeping Focus on Long-Term Objectives

“[W]hile we do need to have a cooperative approach that involves many of our friends and allies in meeting with the Pakistanis, … as we work out with them a rough division of labor, the U.S., I believe, ought to be taking the lead in addressing the issues in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. And given the difficulty of doing so, I suspect that we will not have a great deal of difficulty in convincing them to allow us to take the lead there. But as we all know, there is a real tension between our short-term tactical aims in trying to capture or kill terrorists across the border and militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and our longer- term counterinsurgency pacification goals. We very much need to be focusing on the end state. What is it that we want this area to look like? ... In that context we need to have a common agenda with the Pakistani government and very much to include the military on counterinsurgency in that area. There needs to be, therefore, a focus on combining military efforts with economic, development and political development in those areas.”
—Robert L. Grenier, managing director and chairman for Global Security Consulting, Kroll, event, “Partnership for Progress: Advancing a New Strategy for Prosperity and Stability in Pakistan and the Region,” Center for American Progress, November 17, 2008

Middle East Analysis

Partnership for Progress —Caroline Wadhams, Brian Katulis, Lawrence J. Korb & Colin Cookman, Center for American Progress
Dealing With Pakistan Is Risky Business —Lee H. Hamilton, president, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, former chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee
How Not to Lose Afghanistan (and Pakistan) —Peter Bergen, senior fellow, New America Foundation

A Snub for Syria

March 31, 2008

"Discord among the Arab states is hardly new but is rarely expressed in public. This gesture is a sign of growing exasperationâ€“most of all over Assad's ties with Iran."

The most immediate source of discontent is with Assad’s role in preventing the Lebanese government from voting for a new president to replace outgoing Syrian puppet Emile Lahoud. … For Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and some of the other stay-at-homes, however, Syria’s spoiler role in Lebanon is only a sideshow. The ultimate cause of their rancor is Assad’s alliance with Iran, the ascendant regional power that stands outside the Arab League. …

If there is a remedy for the Arab angst over Syria, it lies in American and Israeli engagement with Assad’s regime, however distasteful that may be. The strategic aim would be to pry Syria from the clutches of Iran. Assad wants the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights returned to Syria and an end to Washington’s hostility. This would be a price worth paying for Lebanon’s emancipation and a diplomatic rollback of Iran’s destabilizing encroachment on the Arab world and Israel. Access the full article>>