Essays
Global Palestine
The Arab World should accept responsibility for its leading role in achieving peace in Palestine, but global leaders should remember that the “Palestinian question” remains central to both regional and international relations.
Palestine, an Arab Issue
By Nabil Fahmy
Arab leaders are confronted by the peace process’ legacy of failure. Today, they face the urgent task of achieving a two-state solution before it is too late.
Waiting for Uncle Sam
For decades, the United States has billed itself as an “honest broker” in the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. Ten principles for renewing confidence in U.S. leadership, and the Arab-Israeli peace process.
Trump’s Toughest Deal
By Shai Feldman and Khalil Shikaki
President Donald Trump has boasted “We will get this done” on peace in the Middle East. Negotiations between wary Israeli and Palestinian leaders might need a provocative jolt in order to stop the slide toward a “one-state reality.”
A Century’s Legacy of Conflict
Understanding the lessons of a conflict deeply steeped in history is essential to resolving it. The strength of facts on the ground, the futility of “might makes right,” and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict’s persistent role in the region’s instability are all part of a legacy that must be acknowledged to achieve peace.
Peace versus the People
Palestinian and Israeli leaders could never reach an agreement on a permanent peace settlement. But what do public opinion surveys reveal about popular, and increasingly ambivalent, support for the peace process’ promised two-state solution among Palestinians and Israelis?
Modi in Israel
Narendra Modi was the first Indian prime minister to visit the Jewish state. Now India, Asia’s rising giant, is stuck between a rock and a hard place: caught at once between its historical support for the Palestinian cause, and its rapidly growing business and technology relations with Israel.
Beyond “Land for Peace”
Peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis in the last quarter-century were never designed to support the establishment of a two-state solution. Brokers of the conflict should look beyond the “land for peace” formula and return to some of the finer details of UN General Assembly Resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine.
Trump versus Globalization
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump campaigned on promises that would reverse years of trade liberalization. Whether or not he triggers a global trade war, his policies are undermining America’s standing as the preeminent world leader.
The Case for Open Markets
By Dany Bahar
Is the free trade party over? Competition certainly has its losers. But the widespread discontent with globalization misses a crucial point: only more trade, not less, will reverse the slowdown in world productivity.
Anti-Trade Alliance
Who’s afraid of globalization? Everybody from Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders, it seems, and environmentalists and factory workers in between. An unlikely coalition of skeptics from across the political spectrum is driving the anti-trade movement.
Speed Bumps on the Silk Road
By Rebecca Liao
China has unveiled a “win-win” policy paper to guide its approach to the Middle East. Its $1 trillion One Belt One Road infrastructure initiative will extend all the way to North Africa. But can trade buy Beijing political clout in the region?
Made in Palestine
By Marda Dunsky
Expansion of Israeli settlements, restriction on access to water, and land confiscation are displacing Palestinians from agricultural livelihoods they have known for centuries. But olive tree growers and backyard gardeners are refusing to surrender their heritage. This is a story of farmers under occupation.
Is There Hope for Iraq?
Defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria will offer Baghdad a fresh state-building opportunity to correct the mistakes following the ouster of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003. As Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds pursue their own interests, a serious effort toward communal understanding is the key to progress.
Rise of the Militiamen
The end of the strongman era in Iraq has led to the rise of paramilitaries representing sects and ethnicities. Popular Mobilization Units have become part of the state’s official security structure. Although the PMUs have been instrumental in the fight against ISIS, their more powerful militias pose a stark challenge to the country’s future stability.
Scramble for Syria
Iran’s support for the Al-Assad regime in Damascus has long provided it with a foothold in Lebanon, Palestine, and the rest of the region. But with its deepening role in the Syrian civil war, Tehran is losing hearts and minds in the Arab World.
Fury in the Philippines
When President Rodrigo Duterte unleashed a deadly war on drug traffickers, criticism by the Obama administration highlighted growing tensions in the century-old U.S.-Philippine alliance. Will Duterte’s budding friendship with a new American president head off Manila’s tilt to China?
Ripples of the 1967 War
By crushing the Arab armies, Israel paradoxically resurrected the Palestinian national movement. But fifty years after Israeli forces captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the bitter struggle over Palestine continues, and continues . . .
Myths of the Six-Day War
By Ilan Pappé
Were Arab leaders determined to launch an attack on Israel? Were Israeli leaders willing to seek peace after their stunning military victory? New scholarship easily challenges the falsehoods long prevalent in Western circles.