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Jordan's U.N. Security Council Debate
In October, Saudi Arabia secured its first-ever election to a seat on the U.N. Security Council (UNSC). The same day, even as gift bags were sent to thank countries that had voted for Saudi Arabia,...
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Geneva 1.5
As currently conceived, Geneva II -- the diplomatic process aimed at reaching a political settlement in Syria -- is headed for near-certain failure. Continued difficulty in setting a firm meeting date...
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A First Step in Geneva
The Geneva nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 (United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, plus Germany) is the first real positive development in the Iranian nuclear crisis in at least 10...
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A Good Deal in Geneva
On Nov. 24, the United States and its P5+1 partners (Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia) reached a historic nuclear accord with Iran. The deal provides the first meaningful constraints on...
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Iran and the U.S.-Saudi Bargain
For the past 30 years, the United States has treated Saudi Arabia as its primary partner in the Persian Gulf and perhaps even the Middle East at large. While the two countries have cooperated on a...
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The Road from Geneva
One of Israel's greatest -- if mistaken -- fears about the historic Geneva agreement with Iran is that this short-term deal will harden into a long-term one, permitting Iran to keep its nuclear...
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Consequences of the Iran Deal
The impact of the Iran nuclear deal is unlikely to be limited to the nuclear proliferation arena. While the question whether the deal has prevented Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons capability...
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How the U.S. Saw Syria's War
The Syrian National Coalition's recent decision to participate in the Geneva II conference on January 22 was welcome news to the U.S. government, which has promoted the negotiations as "the best...
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Obstacles to Ending Syria's Civil War
With more than 100,000 deaths in less than three years, the Syrian civil war ranks in the top 20 most intense of around 150 civil wars since 1945. Why can't the parties to the war cut some kind of...
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The Next Phase of the Syrian Conflict
U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford confirmed on Wednesday what many had predicted, that Syria's Islamic Front (IF) had refused to hold meetings with representatives of the United States. Ford's...
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Icarus and Erdogan's corruption scandal
After monopolizing political power and dominating the public realm for years, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan clearly thought nothing could stop him from flying high. Like Icarus from the...
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Making the Most of Geneva II
The Geneva II conference on Syria, first announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in September 2013, will finally convene in Switzerland next week....
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The Outside-Inside Strategy on Syria
On the surface, the upcoming Geneva II peace talks between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and the Syrian opposition seem dead on arrival, if they even happen at all. The Syrian opposition, already...
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The Deafening U.S. Silence on Saudi Rights
In Saudi Arabia, 2013 was another bad year for human rights, marred by executions and repression of women and activists. Unfortunately, outside of annual human rights reports, U.S. public criticism of...
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The Proxy War Problem in Syria
It is hard to look at the Syrian civil war, with over 100,000 people dead and nearly 9 million others displaced, without wondering how we got here. By now, history must have taught us how to end civil...
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