Syria refuses to give up its support of terrorist organizations despite encouragement from the Obama administration to do so, and it remains a destabilizing and dangerous force in the region.
The finite commitment to counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan that President Obama has announced gives the dangerous impression to our enemies that we are not fully committed to victory.
Middle East Quarterly
November 23, 2009
Syrian support for Islamist terrorism is at the heart of its threat to U.S. national security.
President Obama's decision not to celebrate one of the seminal events of the twentieth century--the fall of the Berlin Wall--is replete with symbolism.
Forcing the Islamic Republic to be accountable to its people can catalyze diplomacy's success.
The Obama administration may convince itself that it remains in control of the diplomatic process and has placed serious constraints upon any Iranian breakout capability, but last month's Iranian test of ballistic missiles underscored both the danger and questions about Iranian sincerity.
The meeting to discuss the Islamic Republic's nuclear program will be a nail in the coffin of the Obama doctrine.
Commentary
September 24, 2009
Michael Rubin reviews Joshua Muravchik's book, The Next Founders: Voices of Democracy in the Middle East .
The United States and Britain have long shared a special relationship, but the recent release of the Lockerbie bomber has put that relationship in jeopardy.
CIA interrogators should not face criminal charges.
The Obama administration must convince not only Ukraine and Georgia, but also central and eastern Europe and Russia, that Washington is serious about its commitment to protect democracy, freedom, and liberty.
Secretary Clinton is correct to note the challenges the Islamic Republic poses, but is incorrect to blame her predecessors rather than the Islamic Republic itself for the failure of diplomacy.
The protests have shifted the paradigm on Iran, and this should make Obama reconsider his approach.
Iraqi Kurdistan's leaders speak of democracy but have become drunk with power and disdainful of public accountability.
Withdrawal from Iraq's cities is good politics in Washington, but when premature and done under fire it may very well condemn Iraqis to repeat their past.
Technology--from the telegraph to the audiotape--has played important roles in consolidating political authority in Iran. Now, technology is making the Islamic Republic vulnerable.
Remaining silent is not neutral; it is casting a vote for the status quo, including the primacy of the supreme leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Street protests in Iran are important but are themselves not enough to force change.
Obama may want to engage Iran's current leadership, but he should throw them no lifeline.
There is no such thing as a free election in the Islamic Republic.
There is an Obama Effect, and it has less to do with reform and more to do with American arrogance and the triumph of advocacy over analysis.
If Muslims believe they suffer great pain in the grave but can avoid it if they die as martyrs, then terror masters have an effective argument when they recruit "martyrdom" bombers.
President Obama has both undermined national security and eroded the foundation of human rights law.
The Obama administration continues to mishandle Pakistan's Taliban crisis.
President Barack Obama has made outreach to the Islamic Republic of Iran a foreign policy centerpiece of his administration.
Iran's arrest of journalist Roxana Saberi recalls Iraq's treatment of Farzad Bazoft.
Before Saddam Hussein was ousted, Iraqi Kurdistan was more democratic than the rest of Iraq, but this is no longer the case.
U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to withdraw troops from Iraq is predicated on an assumption that Iraq's stability is durable.
The Islamic Republic is playing a game of diplomacy without sincerity.
The conciliatory Khatami is a myth, and a dangerous one at that.
Peter R. Mansoor weaves together an expertly written narrative that describes in detail his service in Baghdad during a period of transition.
Robert Earle's narrative conveys little evidence of serious planning or policymaking.
Christian Alfonsi's book might sway conversation in a coffee shop, but it will appear silly to anyone ever involved in policy.
Stuart A. Cohen's work stands the test of time and provides a handy reference for what remains an understudied period.
New U.S. administrations too often assume that the reason for the failure of engagement lies more with their predecessors than with their adversaries.
Should Obama send a letter to Iran's leaders, he would follow a path worn by President Carter.
Too often, new U.S. administrations assume that the fault for failed diplomacy lies more with their predecessors than with their adversary.
The conflict in Gaza is the policy of Hamas, and hoping for positive diplomatic intervention from Hamas's allies in Iran and Syria is futile.
Michael Rubin reviews Losing the Golden Hour: An Insider's View of Iraq's Reconstruction by James Stephenson.
Michael Rubin reviews Arab Politics, Palestinian Nationalism, and the Six Day War by Moshe Shemesh.
A new book on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the Iraq war, and its aftermath makes mincemeat of the historical record in the service of ideological imperatives.
Douglas J. Feith's War and Decision may not be the final account of the Iraq war, but it will certainly provide the basis for future historians.
Olivier Roy provides yet more evidence of just how poor a resource so many professors are when it comes to formulating foreign and national security policies.
It is a myth that the United States has boycotted diplomacy with Iran.
As audacious as Obama's hope might be, Syria cannot be flipped.
The absence of a clear U.S. strategy to deter a nuclear Iran will give Tehran a free hand in the region to pursue conventional aggression and, what is worse, a nuclear attack.
Now is not the time to sendU.S. diplomats to Tehran.
Ahmadinejad has run Iran's economy into the ground.
Regardless of who wins the presidential election, Iranian nuclear ambitions will continue.
Is the Iranian regime responsible for Iranian terrorism?
Byreporting only theviolence and political intrigue and ignoring underlying religious tension, the Western media often gets the Middle East wrong.
A nuclear weapons capable Islamic Republic of Iran is strategically untenable.
Howdid John McCain and Barack Obamaapproach foreign policy questions at the first presidential debate?
How will the next U.S. president approach foreign policy challenges?
An emboldened nuclear Iran could prove destabilizing to the Gulf region and might encourage the United States to adopt a containment strategy.
Maurice Roumani has created a masterful account of the last decades of the vanished community of Libyan Jews.
Barack Obama picked Joe Biden as his runningmatefor experience, but he might also have considered judgment.
As Iranian centrifuges spin and Russian tanks roll into Georgia, foreign policy has moved to the front of the presidential election debate.
The so-called Ergenekon conspiracy in Turkey appears to be a largely fictionalized construct.
As Iranian centrifuges continue to spin, the price of President Bush's flip-flop in diplomacy will be high.
Obama's speech in Berlinwas inspirational, but if anything will be learned from the Bush administration, it is that leadership must run deeper than rhetoric.
There is very little new in the strategy Pollack suggests should replace the failed Middle Eastern policies of the past.
President Bush's reversal on Iranis diplomatic malpractice that is breathing new life into a failing regime.
The coming court verdict on whether Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan violated principles of secularism could plunge Turkey into instability.
Inflation, shortages, and government inefficiency plague Iran's economy and may undermine the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad government.
It is not secular, liberal, or democratic. In fact, Prime Minister Erdoğan has become the Turkish Vladimir Putin.
Iraq's upcoming elections are an opportunity to put local government on the right footing.
Turkish prime minister Erdogan has turned his back on democracy andhas moved toward Russian prime minister Putin's dicatorship.
The second edition of Beverley Milton-Edwards's textbook on the Middle East, though updated, is as mediocre as the first edition.
Between Foreigners and Shi'is is an important addition to the library of those interested in Iranian or Jewish history.
Things Fall Apart provides an invaluable framework from which policymakers across the political spectrum might begin to develop strategies to contain a collapsing Iraqi state.
Because the archives of many Arab countries are sealed or highly restricted, writings by Arab officials are often of value--but notMaan Abu Nowar'sstudy of Jordan's early development.
In the face of a saber-rattling Iran, the next U.S. president will have just two main policy options: containment and deterrence.
The ruling party of Prime Minister Erdoğanmay be athreat to Turkish democracy and may be banned from politics forfive years.
AEI Online
April 23, 2008
Fethullah Gülen claimsto weld Islam witha pro-European outlook, but if he returns to Turkey from exile, he will damage the country's already shaky secular order and constitutionalism.
Democratshave criticized the Bush administration for being too optimistic in setting its foreign policy, but theDemocrats in Congress aremaking thatsame mistake.
Fethullah Gülen'svision ofwelding Islam with tolerance and a pro-European outlook has been well accepted, but it might push Turkey over the edge.
While the United States has focused its attention on Iranian activities in the greater Middle East, Iran has worked assiduously to expand its influence in Latin America and Africa.
Middle East Quarterly
March 1, 2008
Reviews of an analysis of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)and of a collection of articles published by Kurdish experts.
While disentangling the military from politics in Turkey is a noble goal, encouraging it without creation of alternate checks-and-balances is irresponsible.
What does an IRGC-dominated Iran mean for Europe and the United States?
Middle East Quarterly
March 1, 2008
Podhoretz criticizes Bush's foreign policy and relatesBush's decisions to the arguments made by the 2008 presidential candidates in the upcoming election.
Middle East Quarterly
March 1, 2008
Michael Rubin evaluates the usefulness of three recent books about the Middle East.
Europe and the United Statesclaim that Libya has changed, butin realitythe change in the Libyan leader or his regime is more illusionary than real.
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, General Mohamed ElBaradei, is investigating the development of Iran's nuclear program.
The integrity of the intelligence community is diminishing, and some believe it is becoming too political.
Middle East Quarterly
February 21, 2008
Michael Rubin criticizes an analysis of former Iranian president Muhammad Khatami and gives limited praise to a book examining Sino-Iranian relations.
Are we willing to support our ally Iraq with long-term military bases after the war?
Inside the political fantasies, fatuities, and naiveteof foreign service officers.
AEI Online
January 7, 2008
AEI Online
January 7, 2008
AEI Online
January 7, 2008
U.S. sympathy to Kurdistan is understandable but is increasingly based on a myth.
Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemiesis abook whose predictions and analysis willappear silly in hindsight.
Treacherous Alliance wallows in half-truths and conspiracy rather than fact.
AEI Online
January 4, 2008
Turkey has been a poor ally in recent years, but fighting terror requires alliances to trump politics.
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World
January 1, 2008
Background on the Baluchistan region.
Anthony Cordesman's new book offers much disjointed information and little analysis.
The Iraqi political process's best chance for success lies in respecting the Iraqi prime minister's decision to deny populist temptations and focus on the tough reforms ahead.
Turkey has been a poor ally in recent years, but fighting terror requires alliances to trump politics.
Turkey has been a poor ally in recent years, but fighting terror requires alliances to trump politics.
AEI Online
December 18, 2007
Four AEI scholars assess the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran.
Has the Bush administration exaggerated the threat of a nuclear Iran and been far too skeptical of democracy?
The imprisonment of Mahmoud Salehi marks acceleration in the Iranian government's fight against independent labor.
Swiss ambassador Tim Guldimann's Iranian offer is not official diplomatic correspondence.
Iran has given the United States reason to lose confidence in a diplomatic relationship.
Icelandic Way
November 1, 2007
Multilateralism is not always the right way in crafting foreign policy.
The Iranian "roadmap" was not a roadmap and was not Iranian.
If the United States hopes toavoid military escalation with Iran, Congress should not cut Iranian democracy funding.
The needless resolution condemning the near-century-old Armenian genocide shows that Congress is led by foreign policy amateurs.
Why Moscow is making a U.S. military strike on Iran more likely.
Why Moscow is making a U.S. military strike more likely.
A new book on Iran and U.S.-Iranian relations is long on polemics and short on quality analysis.
AEI Online
August 7, 2007
President George W. Bush's failure to keep his promises to foreign leaders is bad news for his legacy and for U.S. national security.
Diplomatic double-talk is not the path to peace or stability.
Diplomatic double-talk is not the path to peace or stability.
Testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on U.S. policy options in Iraq.
The United States should maintain pressure on Iran, but avoid engagement.
Politicizing our problems with Iran and North Korea only creates more problems.
The possibility of an Islamist president in Turkey threatens to destroy the secularist status quo there.
Why does Iran consider Afghanistan so important? What are Iran's strategic aims in Afghanistan?
Will democracy ever be achieved in the Middle East?
Strategic Research and Study Center
May 31, 2007
We may acknowledge that current threats are asymmetrical, but how should we best respond to this type of threat?
A review of David Romano's The Kurdish Nationalist Movement.
Support for independent civil society and diplomacy need not be mutually exclusive.
The second part ofa debate over forcible regime change in the Islamic Republic.
A review of James Fallows's Blind into Baghdad.
A review of Umar F. Abd-Allah'sA Muslim in Victorian America: The Life of Alexander Russell Webb.
A review of Ali Sadeghi's Persia: The Cradle of Infidels.
A review of Kevin McKiernan's The Kurds: A People in Search of Their Homeland.
A review of Kim Olson's Iraq and Back: Inside the War to Win Peace.
A review of Henner Fürtig's Iran's Rivalry with Saudi Arabia between the Gulf Wars.
A review of Ahmad S. Hashim's Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq.
A review of Michael L. Gross's Bioethics and Armed Conflict.
A review of Anglo-Iranian Relations since 1800, edited by Vanessa Martin.
A review of Ernest S. Tucker'sNadir Shah's Quest for Legitimacy in Post-Safavid Iran.
A review of Eric Davis's Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity.
A review ofAli A. Allawi's The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace.
A review of Uzi Rabi's The Emergence of States in a Tribal Society.
A debate over forcible regime change in the Islamic Republic.
Did Iran miscalculate when it took fifteen British marines hostage?
Independence for Kurdistan is not the way to go.
What strategies is Iran employing to increase its influence within Iraq?
A responseto a letter to the editor aboutthe article "Privatize the CIA."
Seçim kampanyaları resmi olarak henüz başlamamışken, Türkiye’de seçim sezonu hareketlilik kazanmaya başladı.
The Iraq war has pumped adrenaline into the publishing industry, producing works that will make lasting contributions to reconstruction planning and scholarly reseearch.
Part II of Michael Rubin's review essay on literature about the war in Iraq.
Talks will not stop Iran's nuclear program.
Has Washington fed into Hamas and other terrorist factions?
Recent waves of Iraq-related publishing have filled bookstores with volumes about this very important time in our world.
With threats multiplying, a culture of job security over performance in the intelligence community will neither protect nor promote the serious thinking needed in the United States.
While the campaigns have not officially begun, election season in Turkey is heating up. Will Turkey's next president be an Islamist?
What exactly makes one illiberal?
AEI Online
January 8, 2007
پرزیدنت بوش در روز 4 فوریه سال 2000 در یک سخنرانی در موسسه ملی موقوفه برای دموکراسی اعلام کرد
IfCongress andPresident Bushplay their cards right, this year could be Ahmadinejad's last.
The International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences
January 1, 2007
Background on the Islamic Republic's first supreme leader.
Senators should not be dupes for dictators. Not every regime is sincere when it extends an olive branch.
AEI Online
December 19, 2006
في الرابع من شباط 2004 خطب الرئيس جورج دبليو بوش في مؤسسة "الصندوق الوطني للديمقراطية" ومما قاله: "إن الإصلاح الديمقراطي الحقيقي يجب أن يأتي من الداخل... بيد أن الولايات المتحدة لن تتأخر عن مد يد العون إلى دعاة الإصلاح إن هم سألوها ذلك"
Proponents of a quick ending of the Iraqi war forget its true goal.
Support for dissent and reform in the Middle East is an investment in a free and democratic future for the region.
According to the New York Times, the Baker-Hamilton Commission will call for a drawdown of U.S. military presence in Iraq albeit without a timeline. The proposition is lose-lose.
In The Kurds and the State, political scientist Natali explores how Kurdish nationalism developed in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.
Turkish military and political officials are concerned both that Iraqi federalism could set a precedent for similar demandsand dangers among Turkey’s Kurdish population.
When several thousand bus driversin Iranwent on strike, paralyzing the capital, they were imprisoned by the government. The White House failed to speak up.
The majority of Arab civil society may celebrate Bush's election rebuke, but Arab reformers may find they have missed their best opportunity, while dictators and theocrats seize theirs.
Iraq was undercut by naive faith, not in democracy but in diplomacy.
With tactical funding of reconstruction projects and no patience for tolerance, democracy still has a chance in Iraq.
United Statesfunding to Iraq should be redirected away from the central government to Iraq's municipalities.
Today, progressivism places personal vendetta above principle, and by embracing such realism, progressives sacrifice their core liberalism.
Saddam’s accountability is important not only for Iraq but also for the wider region. Other Middle Eastern dictators should take note.
Policymakers are abuzz with the explosive recommendations for U.S. policy toward Iraq soon to be released by the Baker-Hamilton Commission.
The news from Iraq is bad, but many of the recommendations coming from London and Washington are worse.
Far from winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis, reinstating Hussein loyalists antagonized them.
Five years into the war on terror, inept U.S. diplomacy risks undercutting a key democracy (and ally) that President Bush once called a model for the Muslim world.
It should not be the job of the American ambassador to comment publicly about issues that are internal to Turkish politics.
North Korea claims it has successfully conducted a nuclear test. How significant is this? What should the U.S. do?
Tehran will only change course if it believes it faces a credible threat for defying the will of the world.
Iran's nuclear program raises the stakes of its deceit to U.S. national security.
AEI scholars respond in a National Review symposium on the war in Iraq.
How do Iranians approach and understand diplomacy?
AEI Online
September 1, 2006
این اولین مقاله از یک سری مقالات تحلیلی است که به چشم انداز مسائل کلیدی در خاورمیانه میپردازد. مایکل روبین، محقق مقیم در موسسه امریکن انترپرایز نویسنده اصلی این سری مقالات است که به زبان عربی نیز در دسترس خواهد بود.
AEI Online
September 1, 2006
هذا الإصدار هو الأول من سلسلة من النصوص التحليلية التي تتناول استحقاقات شرق أوسطية رئيسة. يفتتح ماكيل روبن، الباحث في المعهد الأمريكي للأبحاث السياسية، هذه السلسلة التي سوف تتوفر نصوصها في اللغة العربية والإنكليزية.
Is the West racist toward Arabs and Muslims? In the United States, the answer is both no and yes.
AEI scholars respond in a National Review Online symposium about the U.S. government's decision to issue a visa to former Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami.
If the White House aims to defend the nation against terrorism, and avoid the expense, damage, and trauma of war, it is time to revoke the ban on assassinating our enemies.
A review of The Man Who WouldBe King by Ben MacIntyre Farrar.
A review ofOn Point: The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom by Gregory Fontenot, E. J. Degen, and David Tohn.
A review ofThe Shi‘is of Jabal ‘Amil and the New Lebanonby Tamara Chalabi.
The track record of the Bush White House is to use Arab liberals, but eschew any long-term commitment.
Across Lebanon and the region, Arab leaders see Hezbollah for what it is: An arm of Iranian influence waging a sectarian battle in the heart of the Middle East.
With its long and troubled history in the Middle East, the idea of sending a peacekeeping force should be dead on arrival.
Diplomacy for diplomacy's sake can sometimes make matters worse.
But with its long and troubled history in the Middle East region, the idea of sending a peacekeeping force should be dead on arrival.
Across Lebanon and the region, Arab leaders see Hezbollah for what it is: An arm of Iranian influence waging a sectarian battle in the heart of the Middle East.
There is no more dangerous ideology than the assumption that dialogue is always healthy or appropriate.
The problem with the West’s policy in the Middle East is not lack of diplomacy, but rather failure to allow retaliatory violence and impose accountability.
Michael Rubin reviews Peter Galbraith's "The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End."
While President Bush once spoke of freedom, he now courts those who oppose it.
The Evolving Threat: International Terrorism in the post 9-11 Era
July 12, 2006
As the terror threat grows and terrorist groups demonstrate worldwide reach, democracies fumble not only for an effective political strategy to combat terrorism, but also for a definition.
No matter how poisonous political battles are in Washington, Congress unites in the face of aggression against the United States or its allies.
The future of Iran’s nuclear program lies in the North Korean crystal ball.
Insurgencies end when they are defeated, not when their participants win immunity.
Faced with falling poll numbers, and wanting the affirmation of the foreign policy elite here and abroad, the president seems to have reversed course.
The U.S. can only win this war against Islamic extremism and terror if Washington shows resolve.
If rule-of-law and liberalism is to be preserved in Turkey,the prime minister who must change his mindset.
Ifit transpires that Brodhead has once again tarred the innocent, he can prove his leadership with an apology or a resignation.
Debate about democratization of the Middle East.
The White House has signaled to the world, stand with us if you want, but we only respond when you're against us.
The west must address the question of how to make the Iranian regime accountable to its constituents.
The president needs to force international tyrants to make a choice: reform or face isolation.
A review of Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, Alms for Jihad: Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World, and Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy.
Offered a choice between mitigating opposition to the International Criminal Court or keeping debate free, the U.S. decision should be clear.
While Quakers embrace nonviolence, their institutions increasingly confuse pacifism with leftism.
Juan Cole is a major public figure. But political popularity and punditry should not substitute for research, accuracy and experience.
Proposals for direct negotiations with Iranmay be attractive, but they ignore Iranian history.
A review of Michael Gordon and Berndard Trainor's Cobra II and Tony Zinni's The Battle for Peace.
While international attention is focused on Iran's nuclear program and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's bombast, Iranian society itself is facing turbulent times.
An assessment of Coalition progress in Iraq after three years.
What will happen at this latest Iraqi Kurdistan turning point?
A review of Mike Tucker's Among Warriors in Iraq.
A review of Courney Hunt's The History of Iraq.
A review of The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq.
A review of William O. Beeman's The “Great Satan” vs. the “Mad Mullahs": How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other.
A review of Men of Order: Authoritarian Modernization under Atatürk and Reza Shah.
A review of Hadani Ditmars's Dancing in the No-Fly Zone: A Woman’s Journey through Iraq.
A review of Security, Reform, and Peace: The Three Pillars of U.S. Strategy in the Middle East.
A review of Mark Etherington's Revolt on the Tigris: The al-Sadr Uprising and the Governing of Iraq.
A review of L. Paul Bremer's My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope.
In Iraq today, Iran is replicating the methods by which it promoted the rise of Hezbollah in Lebanon in the 1980s, and the United States must develop an effective counterstrategy.
Step-by-step, Iranian authorities are replicating in Iraq the strategy which allowed Hezbollah to take over southern Lebanon in the 1980s.
Let there be no mistake: Masud Rajavi’s Mujahedin-e Khalq is a terrorist group.
AEI Online
January 25, 2006
Instead of continuing failed diplomatic efforts, world leaders should work together to help the Iranian people create a truly representative government.
On Friday, George Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood together in the White House to condemn Iran.
Few terrorists groups garner the bipartisan endorsement and support that Iran’s Mujahedin al-Khalq Organization [MKO] has.
Information monopoly breeds laziness and dishonesty. Theses should fit the evidence, not vice versa.Personal destruction is easier than open debate.
At least with Ahmadinejad's candid commentary, European officials can see the Islamic Republic for what it is rather than what they wish it to be.
Review of The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq, by George Packer.
Iraqis will go to the polls tomorrow for the third time this year. Their actions mark both a triumph for the Iraqi people and a warning for Arab autocrats.
The center of Washington's policy should be support for Turkey's constitution, judiciary, and rule of law, no matter how chilly it may make Ross L. Wilson's lunches with the prime minister.
Review of Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco, by David L. Phillips.
Review of The Kurds in Iraq, by Kerim Yildiz.
Washington may run the Green Zone in Iraq, but, for Ahmad Chalabi, it is the rest of the country that matters.
Appeasing terror fails; so too does neglect of terror. Left alone, terrorism metastasizes. The only way to defeat terror is to raise the cost of the tactic.
We can win this war for the free world being waged against Islamofascism and its sponsors only if we clearly understand how to support our troops.
As an essential component of America’s War Footing, political warfare must be waged in specific regional initiatives aimed at defeating the Islamofascists.
In time of war, it is simply unacceptable that the country’s national security-related educational needs remain largely unmet.
The cost of corruption goes beyond money. Corruption has done almost as much to hobble Iraq's reconstruction as the insurgency.
When the Islamic Republic collapses, a strong unified Iran will be a force for stability and a regional bulwark against the Islamism under which the Iranian people now chafe.
Terrorists learn from American strategy. If the Bush administration rewards terrorism, groups from Abu Sayyaf to Hamas will conclude that violence pays.
Democracy and reconstruction are processes. Progress is slow, but to those who know Iraq, it is there. Iraqis criticize certain Washington decisions but see no merit in abandonment.
Long home to farfetched conspiracy theories and a political culture of victimization, the Arab world is now being swept by a new emphasis on accountability.
If the United States and Europe wish the Cedar Revolution to succeed, they must work together to undercut Syrian obstructionism and bolster Lebanese reformers.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's message during his monthly television address in June was clear: Ataturk is dead, but Islam lives on.
Wall Street Journal
October 18, 2005
Political brinkmanship devoid of context breeds panic. Beheadings and blood sell copy, but do not accurately reflect Iraq.
La Rivoluzione Democratica Contro Il Terrorismo
October 14, 2005
As forces from beyond Iraq’s borders transform the country into a test case for Arab democratization,Iraqis have embraced their newfound freedoms.
Tony Blair confirmed last week that bombs used to kill eight British soldiers in Iraq were a type used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and groups that it supports in Lebanon.
While Europe should not treat Turkey unfairly, neither should the AKP. It would be a historical tragedy if one party’s fumbles undercut the Turkish dream.
While Bush might once have been remembered for bringing freedom to 30 million Afghans and 25 million Iraqis, his legacy is fast becoming one of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Pessimism regarding Iraq's future is unwarranted. Iraq faces many challenges, but success is still within reach.
AEI Online
September 16, 2005
U.S. officials need to make sure that the rule of law is enforced in Iraq rather than allowing the various factcions to make empty promises and accept U.S. support even as they defy American aims.
U.S. officials should stop turning a blind eye toward their interlocutors’ insincerity and realize that policies consisting exclusively of carrots do not work.
The New Republic
September 5, 2005
Politics is the art of the possible. Liberalism will not be achieved through political martyrdom. Not believing in a loser is not the same as supporting Islamism.
Washington Post
August 9, 2005
Bring home the civilians as well;a smaller embassy shifts responsibilities and accountability to Iraq's new government. That is what the country's transition to democracy should be about.
New York Sun
August 8, 2005
American strategy in Iraq is fatally flawed. Not just policy implementation has gone awry, but rather the assumptions upon which policy is based.
Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's political arrogance and his disdain for both free press and judicial independence threatens the country's rule of law.
Financial Times
July 25, 2005
Marina Ottaway argues that to stabilize Iraq,America should negotiate with the insurgents. Rather than a recipe for peace, Ottaway is proposing a prescription for war.
In Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first news conference as president-elect of Iran, he vowed to continue Iran's nuclear program.
Middle East Quarterly
June 29, 2005
Rubin reviews I. B. Tauris's Cradle of Islam: The Hijaz and the Quest for an Arabian Identity.
Middle East Quarterly
June 29, 2005
Rubin reviews Steven Vincent's In the Red Zone: A Journey into the Soul of Iraq.
Middle East Quarterly
June 29, 2005
Rubin reviews Natan Sharansky's The Case for Democracy.
Middle East Quarterly
June 29, 2005
Rubin reviews Scott Taylor's Among the Others: Encounters with the Forgotten Turkmen of Iraq.
Middle East Quarterly
June 29, 2005
Rubin reviews Mike Tucker's Hell is Over, Voices of the Kurds after Saddam.
Notably absent from a book about Iraq is any consideration of what Iraqis think.
Free speech does not absolve anyone from professional incompetence.
The book Operation Iraqi Freedom is a valuable resource for those needing nuance and informed comment beyond the news headlines.
National Review Online
June 7, 2005
The Anglo-American partnership is alive and well--but America’s closest ally? She’s down under.
BitterLemons-International.org
June 2, 2005
By embracing Islamists in Iran, President Jimmy Carter replaced one dictatorship with another. The Bush administration’s flirtation with Arab Islamists risks doing the same.
Baltimore Sun
May 10, 2005
The White House should abandon its ham-fisted and condescending Sunni strategy and begin treating Iraq like a unified, sovereign nation. Left alone, the Iraqis will do the right thing.
American and European officials have developed a track record of naively valuing rhetoric more than reality. Ultimately, it will be Israeli lives on the line.
Relations between the United States and Turkey must not be allowed to deteriorate further as the partnership could help to resolve important regional issues.
Most Iraqis remain grateful for the liberation which made elections possible, but they resent the manner in which U.S.-Iraqi partnership degenerated into occupation.
Turkish Policy Quarterly
April 13, 2005
If Turkish and American politicians do not acknowledge and put aside their past mistakes, bilateral relations will continue to sour, impacting Turkey's security and the future shape of Iraq.
Middle East Quarterly
February 22, 2005
IfTurkey's Justice and Reconciliation Party (AKP) is able to translate money into power and power into money, then the main loser will be Turkish secularism.
Jerusalem Issue Brief
February 13, 2005
The White House is right to pursue democratization as a solution in Iran.
AEI Online
February 1, 2005
Millions of Iraqis went to the polls on January 30 and demonstrated that they are prepared for freedom and for the responsibility of transforming their nation from tyranny to democracy.
Wall Street Journal
January 31, 2005
The voice of freedom in Iraq may still be young, but Iraqis yesterday determined that it cannot be silenced.
National Review Online
January 28, 2005
Iraqis do not want the United States to leave, but they do want some changes.
The Middle East will continue to dominate White House attention in President George W. Bush's second term.
If Ariel Sharon goes ahead with Gaza disengagement, generations both inside and outside Israel will be sacrificed upon the altar of his legacy.
Washington Post
January 26, 2005
Democracy may be a process, but it is one in which Iraqis are ready to take the first step.
The worsening atmosphere is driving the Iraqi desire to vote.
The Iraq embassy in Washington is a symptom of many problems with interim Iraqi president Ayad Allawi.
Ha'aretz
December 10, 2004
An anti-Western ideology remains at the core of the Islamic republic, even as the majority of Iranian citizens long to join the West.
Washington Post
November 29, 2004
Richard Cohen's defense of Iran's nuclear ambitions ignores important evidence--the voices of Iranians.
Background on the British Indian agency that managed telegraph lines in Iran in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Background on the telegraph company that controlled wires betweenTehran and London via Russia and Germany in the nineteenth century.
ASAM Conference
October 26, 2004
With daily reports of death and destruction, it is easy to view Iraq as a hopeless quagmire, but the situation is far more nuanced than outside commentators often portray.
If we can provideIraq with security, Iraq has a good chance of creating a decent, representative government that takes its responsibilities at home and abroad seriously.
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