*This Commentary first appeared in the National Journal online on September 22, 2011
This article first appeared as an Op-Ed on Politico.com on September 19, 2011
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas early this week will likely fulfill his longstanding vow to introduce in the U.N. Security Council a resolution to recognize Palestine as the 194th member state. No one should be the least bit surprised.
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Ilan Peleg and Dov Waxman, authors of the book Israel's Palestinians:The Conflict Within (Cambridge, 2011), for a discussion about their findings. One in five citizens of Israel are Palestinian. Often overlooked by outside observers, the challenges facing the Palestinian minority in Israel are an inseparable part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Resolving this conflict – a central concern of U.S. foreign policy and current international diplomacy – requires more than the establishment of a Palestinian state.
This article originally appeared in TheAtlantic.com and on Peacefare.net on July 7, 2011
This article originally appeared in the National Interest online under the title "Collapse Imminent in Afghanistan" on April 21, 2011
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Greg Myre and Jennifer Griffin for a discussion about the ongoing challenges in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on their knowledge and experiences recounted in their new book, This Burning Land: Lessons from the Front Lines of the Transformed Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Myre and Griffin, journalists who are husband and wife, traveled to Jerusalem in 1999 in hopes of finally seeing Middle East peace. Instead, the pair watched as violence in the area escalated and the peace process disintegrated.
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Greg Myre and Jennifer Griffin for a discussion about the ongoing challenges in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on their knowledge and experiences recounted in their new book, This Burning Land: Lessons from the Front Lines of the Transformed Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Myre and Griffin, journalists who are husband and wife, traveled to Jerusalem in 1999 in hopes of finally seeing Middle East peace. Instead, the pair watched as violence in the area escalated and the peace process disintegrated.
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Staffan De Mistura, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan, for a lecture and discussion on the UN's mission in Afghanistan. De Mistura will speak at MEI following the UN Security Council debate on the mandate renewal of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). The Security Council resolution with the new mandate is scheduled to be adopted on March 22, 2011, the day of this event.
The Obama administration's efforts to win a settlement freeze as a confidence-building measure have failed, and the U.S.has not presented a new vision for resuming the moribund peace process. Nevertheless, many analysts now recommend shifting the diplomatic focus to negotiations to define the border between Israel and the future state of Palestine. Resolving the border would address the issues of settlements and Jerusalem as well as potential land swaps between the two states.
The Middle East Institute, in partnership with the Fondation Pour le Recherche Strategique, is proud to host Dr. Susanne Schmeidl and Dr. Geraldine Chatelard for a discussion of situations of protracted mass displacement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Funded by the European Commission, the project aims to generate policy recommendations that will strengthen transatlantic cooperation to respond to the refugee crises in the above-mentioned countries. The event will feature the findings of the two project team leaders, based on more than two dozen field-research papers.
The Middle East Institute is proud to host the Honorable Robert Wexler and Dr. Yoram Peri for a discussion about the challenges facing Israel and the Middle East peace process in the wake of the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Some in Israel, including former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, argue that current events in the region make it imperative that Israel move quickly to secure a peace treaty with the Palestinians. Others insist Israel proceed with caution, given the increased instability in the region.
Israeli politics is notable for its wide array of parties and unstable coalition governments. The main institutional cause of this chronic instability is the system of nationwide proportional representation, which gives disproportionate influence to minor parties. This instability limits the ability of Israeli governments to pursue coherent long-term strategies and leads to policies that address the concerns of minority groups at the expense of the national interest.
The Middle East Institute presents a lecture and discussion with Andrew Exum, Fellow at the Center for A New American Security, assessing the possibility of a new Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and its ramifications for U.S. strategy there. The past six months have seen some remarkable successes in southern Afghanistan. But if hard-won security gains collapse in the face of a renewed Taliban offensive in 2011, the NATO strategy to secure Afghanistan will be in grave danger.
The Middle East Institute hosts a lecture and discussion with Mark N. Katz, examining the impact of the current and future US withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan on Islamic radicals. Katz argues that the US withdrawals from both countries will lead radicals to conclude they have defeated the US in the "War on Terror" and that US regional strength is on the decline. This, he argues, will spur Islamic radicals to seek further gains elsewhere.
Few question the desirability of finding a political resolution to the Afghan conflict or doubt Pakistan’s pivotal role. The growing divide of opinion in this country is over how best to achieve that outcome. One camp led by our military strategists insists that various political agreements are likely to result from accumulated military successes, sustained by Afghan governance reforms and economic improvements. Visible counterinsurgency gains are expected to gradually wean fighters away from the ranks of the insurgency.