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

Changing Syria’s Strategic Considerations

May 29, 2008

"[A] peace agreement with Syria is the same as signing a peace agreement with [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad. ... We can not make any concession to Damascus as long as it is an ally of Iran and serves as its base for hostility and aggression against Israel."
--Likud MK Michael Eitan, May 22, 2008

"Iran is Syria's strategic backer in the face of the U.S. and Israel, and once Syria normalizes its ties with the West, it will no longer need Iran ... For Syria, talks with Israel are its way to rectify its ties with the West and the United States, most of all ... Iran needs a reason for friction with Israel. The second a peace agreement is signed with Syria and the Palestinians it will lose most of its excuses for its belligerency against Israel and support of terror organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas."
--Brigadier General (Res.) Shlomo Brom, former head of the Strategic Planning Division in the Planning Branch of the IDF’s General Staff, current senior research fellow at The Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, May 22, 2008