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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

Launch of Palestinian Political Risk Insurance

Innovative Political Risk Insurance Initiative to Assist Palestinian Businesses

New York — The Center for American Progress/Middle East Progress announced during the final day of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) the launch of the Palestinian Political Risk Insurance project (PPRI). PPRI will provide previously unavailable political risk insurance to Palestinian businesses and local and foreign investors. By helping businesses better manage certain types of risk, PPRI seeks to encourage Palestinian economic growth through increased exports and the related increase in business transactions and jobs.

“With relatively modest seed support, we can build a Fund that will help catalyze millions more in business investment, create many badly needed jobs, and contribute toward a more stable and secure region, and world,” said John Podesta, President and CEO of Center for American Progress.

The Center for American Progress and Middle East Progress is joined by several other US, European, and Middle East partners brought together through Clinton Global Initiative on this effort, including: AIG, the Middle East Investment Initiative (MEII), Circle Financial Group, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP, DLA Piper, National Insurance Company (NIC), the Portland Trust, and Ambassador Ed Gabriel, all of whom have pledged to build and sustain PPRI. To date, PPRI partners have committed $1 million, in cash and in kind contributions. AIG has committed $250,000 to fund PPRI start-up costs, and will also provide technical assistance on political risk insurance to local Palestinian insurance partner(s), led by National Insurance Company.

“Over the course of the coming year, we will create a $30 million political risk insurance fund, with accompanying 10 year operating budget and callable capital requirements,” said Mara Rudman, Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress and adviser to Middle East Progress. “The Fund should be in a position to issue policies by next September.”

History of PPRI

The Palestinian Political Risk Insurance project began at the 2005 Clinton Global Initiative, when, uniquely charged by President Clinton, a group of business, policy, and insurance experts set out to create an insurance mechanism to help promote growth of the Palestinian economy. After two years of market research, analysis, and business planning, PPRI is ready to establish a formal entity and structure and build the risk insurance fund required to launch the entity in the region next year.

The Palestinian Political Risk Insurance Project is working with other similar efforts, such as the Middle East Investment Initiative (MEII), to create a variety of economic tools to help stimulate and increase the potential for investment in the Palestinian economy. MEII, a partnership between the Aspen Institute, the Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF), and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), launched a $160 million loan guarantee facility in Ramallah in July 2007. The political risk insurance and the bank loan guarantee projects both promote jobs and economic opportunity, which are critical to establishing stability and security for Palestinians, a better future for the peoples of the region, and a more secure world.

The Center for American Progress & Middle East Progress

The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a progressive think-tank dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through ideas and action. The Center for American Progress is headed by John D. Podesta, former chief of staff to President William J. Clinton and a professor at Georgetown University Center of Law. Middle East Progress, a project of Center of American Progress, helps develop and highlight practical approaches and voices to managing – and resolving – the Arab-Israeli conflict. Mara Rudman, a Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress, is the senior adviser to Middle East Progress, and served as a deputy national security adviser to President William J. Clinton.

The Clinton Global Initiative

President Clinton started the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in 2005. A non-partisan catalyst for action, CGI brings together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI consists of approximately 1,000 members from all over the world who commit to create or support projects within one or more of CGI’s annual areas of focus. In 2007, the areas of focus are education, energy & climate change, global health, and poverty alleviation.