Posted in Culture, Diplomacy, Iran, Philip Carl Salzman, Raymond Tanter on Nov 4th, 2009 1 Comment »
From Philip Carl Salzman
“It is time for the Iranian government to decide whether it wants to focus on the past, or whether it will make the choices that will open the door to greater opportunity, prosperity, and justice for its people.”
—President Barack Obama, statement on the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy [...]
Posted in Adam Garfinkle, Afghanistan, Iran on Nov 4th, 2009 No Comments »
From Adam Garfinkle
As President Obama decides how to proceed in the Afghan war, he needs to add one more variable that is rarely mentioned: Iranian determination to acquire nuclear weapons. An ongoing Afghanistan campaign means that resort to force against Iran would be tantamount to starting a second war. The politics being what they are, [...]
Posted in Alan Dowty, Israel, Palestinians, United Nations on Nov 3rd, 2009 No Comments »
From Alan Dowty
As the Goldstone report on the Gaza war wends it way up the UN food chain, casting further opprobrium on Israel at each level, it is legitimate to question Israel’s handling of this challenge. Did the Israeli response lessen or aggravate the damage?
There are serious critiques that could have been levied against Goldstone’s [...]
Posted in Afghanistan, Iran, Raymond Tanter, Taliban on Nov 2nd, 2009 No Comments »
From Raymond Tanter
The role of Iran in fueling insurgency in Iraq, particularly attacks against U.S. forces, has been well-documented and forms one front in Iran’s proxy war against the United States. Receiving much less attention than Iraq, is the role Iran has played in supporting anti-NATO insurgents in Afghanistan as a second front against U.S. [...]
Posted in Caucasus, Central Asia, Islam in West, Mark N. Katz, Russia, Walter Laqueur on Nov 1st, 2009 1 Comment »
From MESH Admin
Walter Laqueur contributes a new paper to MESH’s Middle East Papers series, on Russia’s Muslim strategy. That strategy, barely coherent, is riddled with contradictions, as Russia vacillates between resentment of the American-led world order and fear of an ascendant Islam. For now, it’s the resentment against the West that dominates the Russian outlook, [...]
Posted in Geopolitics, Soner Cagaptay, Turkey on Oct 26th, 2009 No Comments »
From Soner Cagaptay
Turkey’s ties with its neighbors have been transformed since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power almost seven years ago in November 2002. Some analysts have described the AKP’s foreign policy as a “zero problems with neighbors” approach. Under the AKP, Ankara has indeed eliminated problems and built good ties with [...]
Posted in Israel, Michael Reynolds, Syria, Turkey on Oct 14th, 2009 Comments Off
From Michael Reynolds
The past several days have witnessed not one but two momentous, even stunning, developments in Turkish foreign policy that are reverberating through the region. Both are the work of Ahmet Davutoğlu, a former university professor who became Turkish foreign minister last year. Before that, Davutoğlu (shown on far right with his Syrian counterpart [...]
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