A Senate proposal calling for the restructuring of Iraq’s government has drawn fire from Iraqis who liken it to partition. Amid the criticism have emerged other controversial options.

Pakistani air strikes along its Afghan border punctuate recent clashes between militants and the Pakistani army. But some officials worry Pakistan’s aggressive response is too little, too late.

Marvin G. Weinbaum, a veteran analyst on Pakistan and Afghanistan, says Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf has won time for himself by agreeing to resign as army chief, but could still face a major crisis if reelected on October 6.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit speaks about the stability and foreign policy of the region,

Ambassador John M. Yates, U.S. special envoy to Somalia, says the security situation remains dismal in Mogadishu and the Somali people lack confidence in the Transitional Federal Government.

Stephen Biddle, CFR’s top military analyst on Iraq, says the only analytically sound alternatives in Iraq are to either pull out now, or to stick with a revamped “surge.”

A rise in suicide bombings suggests the “surge” in American forces may be failing. That has military analysts updating their views of how the United States will begin to detach itself from the Iraq War.  

Watch Robert E. Hunter of the RAND Corporation, Robert A. Malley of the International Crisis Group, and Dennis B. Ross of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, reflect on the past forty years of the Middle East peace process and debate strategies for the future.

Listen to Robert E. Hunter of the RAND Corporation, Robert A. Malley of the International Crisis Group, and Dennis B. Ross of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, reflect on the past forty years of the Middle East peace process and debate strategies for the future.

Despite international intervention to protect Somalia’s fledgling government, fighting persists while the humanitarian situation deteriorates. Regional stability is at risk once again.

Karim Sadjadpour, an Iranian-American who served for several years in Iran for the International Crisis Group, says he believes elements within the Revolutionary Guards have an economic motivation in keeping Iran relatively isolated in the world.

A leading Mideast expert, Martin S. Indyk, says Israeli troops are likely to enter Gaza to end Hamas-directed rocket attacks, with the hope of yielding to international peacekeepers.

As violence once again threatens to overtake Lebanon, the clash of Syrian, Iranian, Israeli, and American interests provides a familiar backdrop.

A graphic presentation from the Washington Institute showing attacks in Northern Israel.

Anthony Cordesman arges that better data to measure progress in Afghanistan and Iraq are needed. He says that too many current measures of progress have little or no value, report meaningless nation-wide data, quantify the unimportant, or are more designed to “spin” immediate success than win real victory over time. The true complexities, uncertainties, and risks involved in dealing with a host of ethnic, sectarian, tribal, and regional problems are downplayed or ignored, leading to assumptions that insurgent groups are unpopular and that US, NATO, and Afghan government are assumed to have large-scale support—assumptions that may well be incorrect.

Daniel Markey, a CFR South Asia expert, says a recent trip to Pakistan revealed deep official concerns that protests against the president could spiral out of control.

Despite the death of a prominent Taliban leader, the rise in civilian casualties has strained relations between Washington and Kabul.