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

Partnership for Progress —Caroline Wadhams, Brian Katulis, Lawrence J. Korb & Colin Cookman, Center for American Progress
Dealing With Pakistan Is Risky Business —Lee H. Hamilton, president, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, former chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee
How Not to Lose Afghanistan (and Pakistan) —Peter Bergen, senior fellow, New America Foundation

Blair Takes on the World’s Toughest Job

October 3, 2007

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)

In late June, [Blair] officially accepted a position as Middle East envoy from the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia. Later, Jonathan Powell told me that during the Irish negotiations he would get instructions from his boss "to make water move uphill." Achievement depends on belief; if you believe, the impossible might happen. With the 1998 Good Friday agreement and this year’s swearing-in of a government in Belfast headed by once-implacable unionist and republican foes, water flowed up a mountain. Of all Blair’s achievements… peace in Northern Ireland stands out. …

Now a new test of Blair’s vigor awaits him. His first visits with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in July were a prelude to a much longer trip this fall. He appears determined to work furiously on creating a Palestine of sufficiently credible political institutions for Israel to do business with it. …

Many others with such lofty ambitions for the Middle East, including Clinton, have failed. Still, … it seemed almost cynical not to share Blair’s optimism. Apartheid was always going to end in a bloodbath until Nelson Mandela appeared. Northern Ireland was unsolvable until Tony Blair arrived. Nothing is impossible, perhaps not even peace in the Middle East. Access the full article>>