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

Right Signals Needed to Promote Regional Stability

June 27, 2008

Pierre Atlas, director of The Richard G. Lugar Franciscan Center for Global Studies at Marian College, “Secularism vs. Democracy in Turkey,” Real Clear Politics, June 14, 2008:

“The headscarf issue is just the tip of the political iceberg. The Constitutional Court is soon expected to declare the AKP, an openly Islamic party, to be illegal and ban its members— including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan—from parliament. This may preserve Turkey’s secularism, but it is hard to see how it preserves its democracy. Despite the current constitutional crisis, Turkey is a stable country in an unstable region. … Turkey is a country that welcomes Israeli as well as Iranian tourists—and it is the AKP government that has provided mediation for the Israeli-Syrian peace talks in Ankara. There is a lot to suggest from Turkey’s modern history and its rich Ottoman past that this crisis can be overcome in a way that could strengthen the country’s democracy—if cooler heads prevail, and if the right signals are sent from Washington and the EU."