Middle East Strategy at Harvard

From Robert O. Freedman
At the time of the Russian invasion of Georgia, Russia was following a policy of encouraging the main anti-American forces in the Middle East—Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran—while at the same time trying to cultivate the major Sunni Arab states of the Middle East, especially Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United [...]

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MESH invites selected authors to offer original first-person statements on their new books—why and how they wrote them, and what impact they hope and expect to achieve. Peter R. Mansoor is the General Raymond Mason Chair of Military History, Ohio State University, and a recently retired U.S. Army colonel. His new book is Baghdad at [...]

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From Martin Kramer
Ann (Nancy) K.S. Lambton, the distinguished British historian of medieval and modern Iran, died on July 19 at the age of 96. Her obituaries tell some of her remarkable story as a pioneering scholar and a formidable personality. They are also interesting for what they omit, regarding her role in the idea of [...]

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MESH invites selected authors to offer original first-person statements on their new books—why and how they wrote them, and what impact they hope and expect to achieve. W. Taylor Fain is an assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. His new book is American Ascendance and British Retreat in the Persian [...]

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From Walter Laqueur
Some have said that the Kremlin is unpredictable. I always found the Soviet (Russian) leadership more predictable than the White House.
According to Vladimir Putin, the breakdown of the Soviet Union was the greatest disaster of the 20th century. If so, one ought to undo (or reduce) the damage, and Moscow is now in [...]

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From Walter Reich
That Israel’s leadership can’t figure out what to do when faced with the challenge of ransoming kidnapped Jews is excusable. That much of that leadership seems to be ignorant of the fact that Jews have given two thousand years of thought to exactly that problem, however, isn’t.
A few weeks ago, in exchange for [...]

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MESH invites selected authors to offer original first-person statements on their new books—why and how they wrote them, and what impact they hope and expect to achieve. John R. Bradley has written for The Economist, The Washington Quarterly, The Financial Times, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, Newsweek, and Salon. His new book is [...]

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