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home > the cfr think tank > research projects > Middle East Program
Steven Cook
Steven Simon
Ray Takeyh
Noah Feldman
Vali Nasr
Mohamad BazziThe Middle East remains a source of tension and unrest, a region where some of the globe’s most intractable foreign-policy issues are fiercely contested. Insurgent violence threatens Iraq’s new government and tests the Bush administration’s strategy to plant the seeds of Arab democracy. Iran’s nuclear ambitions raise questions about proliferation of the world’s most destructive weapons, while its theocratic government keeps a tight grip on the electoral process and ponders relations with a transformed Iraq. Israeli-Palestinian relations improved after the death of Yasir Arafat, but it is an open question whether the peace process will go forward amid Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and Palestinian maneuvering for power in the post-Arafat era. In the Gulf region, authoritarian regimes are buoyed by high energy prices, but buffeted by threats from Islamic fundamentalists and calls for political liberalization.
Featured Projects
July 1, 2004—Present
| Staff: | Steven A. Cook, Douglas Dillon Fellow |
|---|
Since September 11, 2001, U.S.-Middle East policy has sought to promote reform in the Arab and Islamic World as a U.S. national security priority. This Roundtable series sheds light on the complex issues that the countries of the Middle East present and explores the different avenues available to U.S. policymakers seeking to promote change in that region. By drawing on the experience of a variety of speakers with particular expertise on social, political, and economic reform, women’s issues, education, and the media, this Roundtable series intends to enrich the current debate on reform promotion in the Arab world with a range of top-tier perspectives and policy recommendations in an informal discussion setting.
July 1, 2005—Present
| Staff: | Steven A. Cook, Douglas Dillon Fellow |
|---|
January 1, 2006—Present
| Staff: | Vali R. Nasr, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies |
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October 2006—Present
| Staff: | Noah Feldman, Adjunct Senior Fellow |
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February 1, 2007—Present
| Directors: | Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies |
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The United States is faced with an array of serious challenges in the Middle East, perhaps unprecedented in the past fifty years. An attempt to provoke a revolutionary change in the Middle East has collapsed with a large U.S. land army lodged in the heart of the region. The United States now confronts a Middle East that features an imploding Iraqi state, an aggressive Islamic Republic about to cross the nuclear threshold and a Palestinian state broken into two failed entities.
The Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East will seek to develop strategies for the next administration. Should the United States attempt to recoup its position by pressing forward, albeit more prudently and with international cooperation, or should the United States go "back to the future," and place "stability over freedom," to use President Bush's phrase? Is it time to create an alliance with Sunnis to stave off the immediate threat of Iranian encroachment? What should the United States' grand strategy be in the Middle East? These and other questions will be the focus of monthly discussions.
Featured Publications
February 2007 (updated September 2007)
| Author: | Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies |
|---|
Council Special Report No. 23
This Council Special Report concludes that only if the United States disengages militarily will it minimize the strategic costs of its failure in Iraq.
September 14, 2006
| Author: | Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies |
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August 2006
| Author: | Vali R. Nasr, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies |
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As nations around the world struggle with the threat of militant Islam, Vali Nasr, one of the leading scholars on the Middle East, provides us with the rare opportunity to understand the political and theological antagonisms within Islam itself.
June 2006
| Authors: | Steven A. Cook, Douglas Dillon Fellow Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Alliance Relations |
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Council Special Report No. 15
This Council Special Report makes the case that Turkey’s strategic importance to the United States is greater than ever, and that a major effort needs to be undertaken to renew and revitalize the relationship.
May 2006
| Author: | Rachel Bronson, Former Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies |
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The first full history of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, revealing why the alliance was formed and what we stand to lose if it collapses.
March 2, 2006
| Author: | Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies |
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In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, CFR's Ray Takeyh says "more imaginative U.S. diplomacy" with Tehran can still prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threat.
June 2005
Task Force Report No. 54
A Council-sponsored Task Force argues that the United States should support the evolutionary development of democracy consistently throughout the Middle East. It points out that a strategy to promote democracy entails inherent risks, but that “the denial of freedom carries much more significant long-term dangers.”
This report is also available in Arabic.
Further Readings
May 2007
| Author: | Steven A. Cook, Douglas Dillon Fellow |
|---|
This book critically examines how the legacies of military control in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey affect political development in these countries, highlighting the often-overlooked difficulties of promoting democratic change in military- dominated political systems. Using Turkey's recent reforms as a point of departure, Steven Cook offers novel policy prescriptions for encouraging political change in Egypt and Algeria.
See more in Egypt, Defense/Homeland Security, Democracy and Human Rights
October 2006
| Author: | Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies |
|---|
Book
A groundbreaking book that reveals how the underappreciated domestic political rivalries within Iran serve to explain the country’s behavior on the world stage. A leading expert explains why we fail to understand Iran and offers a new strategy for redefining this crucial relationship.
See more in Iran, Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Public Diplomacy
Climate change poses threats to national security in a number of ways. In this report, sponsored by the Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Joshua W. Busby offers specific recommendations for confronting this important issue, including a list of "no-regrets" policies.
This report, by International Affairs Fellow Michelle D. Gavin and sponsored by the Center for Preventive Action, surveys the current situation in Zimbabwe and proposes steps that can increase the likelihood that regime change, when it comes, will bring constructive reform instead of conflict and state collapse.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:
Gary Samore
Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
+1-212-434-9627
gsamore@cfr.org
Sebastian Mallaby
Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for
Geoeconomic Studies, Deputy Director of Studies, and Paul A. Volcker Senior
Fellow for International Economics
smallaby@cfr.org
Janine Hill
Deputy Director of Studies Administration
+1-212-434-9753
jhill@cfr.org
The David Rockefeller Studies Program is the Council’s “think tank.” Its work is integral to achieving the Council’s goal of contributing to the foreign policy debate. Fellows in the Studies Program do this by researching, writing, and commenting on the most important challenges facing the United States and the world.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
