The U.S. ability to build productive relationships with Islamic states and people will have a direct and important role in stanching the terrorist threat. This roundtable will continue to focus on the following objectives: to determine how the war is affecting American relations with the Middle East and Islamic world; and provide recommendations to policy makers on how to manage unavoidable differences with key regional partners. Questions addressed throughout the year will be:
• Is the Israeli-Palestinian crisis distracting from the war on terrorism?
• What must Washington ask from key regional partners such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and Jordan in the war on terrorism and what should it offer in return?
• Can the United States effectively deter the export of Islamic radicalism, how and at what cost?

The Middle East Forum develops and sponsors meetings and roundtables with distinguished leaders in government, business, academia and the media to examine and discuss U.S. interests in the Middle East. The Forum has been funded since 1996 by an endowment raised by Judith Kipper. Ms. Kipper serves as the director of the Middle East Forum.

This ongoing roundtable series will focus on two main issues: war with Iraq and the American “Two-State” for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. A set of meetings will be held examining each issue.

War with Iraq: Implications for the Arab-Israeli peace process: the 1990-91 Gulf Crisis had a profound impact on the Arab-Israeli peace process and American peacemaking efforts. Today, as Israeli-Palestinian violence eludes measures to contain it, and the larger Arab-Israeli peace process is under greater stress, the United States is again preparing for war against Iraq. What are the likely consequences of a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq for Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy? Will a war again create new opportunities for peacemaking? Should the United States seek to impose its new “road-map” for Israeli-Palestinian peace following a successful war against Iraq? Can the United States take certain measures even today, in advance of a war with Iraq, to prepare for post-Iraq diplomacy in the Middle East? This series of two to threes meetings will address U.S. policy options. Each session will feature an American keynote speaker, and an Israeli and Palestinian responder.

This series of two to threes meetings will address U.S. policy options. Each session will feature an American keynote speaker, and an Israeli and Palestinian responder.

The U.S. “Road-map” for a Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: four months after re-defining American objectives and priorities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Bush 6/24/02 speech), the Bush administration has developed a detailed “road-map” for ending violence, re-starting negotiations, and establishing a viable Palestinian state. The United States is currently discussing the plan with Israel, the Palestinians, and Arab countries in the region. This set of meetings will examine whether or not this “road-map” will avoid the mistakes of previous initiatives, which remain stillborn; the role that the Quartet will play in this plan; will the “road-map” be performance or time based; what other mechanisms will it rely on; what the kinds of incentives and sanctions, if any, should the United States employ.

The U.S./Middle East Project seeks to forge new private/public-sector coalitions to advance the peace process in the Middle East in both its political and economic dimensions. The Project’s current programs include; the Independent Task Force on Strengthening Palestinian Public Institutions, the Study Group on Middle East Trade Options, the U.S./Middle East Project Roundtable, and the U.S.-European Consultation on the Middle East. The International Board of the U.S./Middle East Project, which serves as an advisory board to the Project, is chaired by The Honorable Brent Scowcroft, co-chaired by Osama el Baz, political advisor to Egyptian President Mubarak, and Robert K. Lifton, Council member and Medis Technologies Chairman, with Saudi Ambassador Bandar Bin Sultan as Honorary Chair. Board members include senior public and private sector leaders from the Middle East, the United States, and Europe.

The International Board of the U.S./Middle East Project undertook two missions to the Middle East this year. The October 1999 mission covered six countries, where the board held meetings with government and business leaders, including Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia; Sultan Qaboos of Oman; Sheikh Hamad, emir of Qatar; President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen; and King Abdullah of Jordan. In March 2000, the board met Moroccan government and business leaders in a mission to Rabat and Casablanca. Led by Senior Fellow Henry Siegman, the delegation included International Board members from the United States, France, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

This Study Group is organized around chapters of Steven Cook’s recently completed book manuscript titled: Ruling, But Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Turkey, and Algeria. Historically, Egypt, Turkey, and Algeria have exhibited a fairly predictable and similar set of political patterns which reflected the stability of authoritarian politics in these countries. In late 1990s and early 21st century, Turkey was able to break the political logjam of authoritarianism. What accounts for regime stability in Egypt, Algeria, and previously Turkey? Why was Turkey successful and Egypt and Algeria not successful? This book is intended to combine a scholarly approach to interesting questions concerning regime stability, Islamist political activity, civil-military relations, and transitions to and from democracy; yet it also contains a conscious policy edge that is relevant to current debates about democracy in the Arab and wider Muslim world.

The Study Group is made possible by the generous support from the Kauffman Foundation.

The U.S./Middle East Project convenes an annual, two-day U.S.-European consultation with senior government officials from the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, the intelligence community, and their counterparts from over ten European Union countries to discuss U.S. and European approaches to Middle East peace-making. Last year’s consultation, the fifth in a series of annual meetings, took place in Madrid, Spain, under the co-sponsorship of the Spanish Foreign Ministry. The next meeting will take place in Italy, under the co-sponsorship of the Italian Foreign Ministry.

The four previous consultations, designed to create greater understanding and coordination between U.S. and European policymakers, took place in Paris (1997), Washington, D.C. (1998), London (1999) and Berlin (2000).

This Study Group will result in a book that provides an alternative to the prevailing wisdom that the thwarted self-determination of the Palestinian people is the primary cause of Arab anti-Western sentiment: The Great Powers, so the argument goes, have historically supported an aggressive Israel, thereby undermining their Arab friends and providing sustenance to their enemies. Doran counters that Arab states have used the conflict with Israel as a means of pursuing agendas wholly unrelated to the cause of Palestine. He describes the Arab-Israeli conflict as a proxy war that the Arab states have fought against each other and against the Great Powers.

In addition to reinterpreting the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Doran provides policy makers with tools for analyzing the complex crosscurrents that blur the lines between the Palestine question, inter-Arab politics, and relations between the Western powers and Middle Eastern states.

This New York-based series analyzes topical issues in the Middle East and their affect on American policy concerns. Meetings will focus on the status of Palestinian refugees and their role in the Middle East Peace Process. The Roundtable also concentrates on U.S. relations with Iran and the U.S. military action against Iraq.

This event was a day-long seminar at the Council, in conjunction with the Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University, at which the peace process and the wider political, economic, and security issues in the Middle East were discussed from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Amb. Itamar Rabinovich delivered an address during the luncheon on Syrian-Israeli negotiations.

This Study Group will result in a book that provides an alternative to the prevailing wisdom that the thwarted self-determination of the Palestinian people is the primary cause of Arab anti-Western sentiment: The Great Powers, so the argument goes, have historically supported an aggressive Israel, thereby undermining their Arab friends and providing sustenance to their enemies. Doran counters that Arab states have used the conflict with Israel as a means of pursuing agendas wholly unrelated to the cause of Palestine. He describes the Arab-Israeli conflict as a proxy war that the Arab states have fought against each other and against the Great Powers.

In addition to reinterpreting the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Doran provides policy makers with tools for analyzing the complex crosscurrents that blur the lines between the Palestine question, inter-Arab politics, and relations between the Western powers and Middle Eastern states.

This Study Group will result in a book that provides an alternative to the prevailing wisdom that the thwarted self-determination of the Palestinian people is the primary cause of Arab anti-Western sentiment: The Great Powers, so the argument goes, have historically supported an aggressive Israel, thereby undermining their Arab friends and providing sustenance to their enemies. Doran counters that Arab states have used the conflict with Israel as a means of pursuing agendas wholly unrelated to the cause of Palestine. He describes the Arab-Israeli conflict as a proxy war that the Arab states have fought against each other and against the Great Powers.

In addition to reinterpreting the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Doran provides policy makers with tools for analyzing the complex crosscurrents that blur the lines between the Palestine question, inter-Arab politics, and relations between the Western powers and Middle Eastern states.

For fifty five years, the United States and Saudi Arabia were solid partners. Since 9/11 this partnership has been sorely tested. InThicker than Oil: Ameica's Uneasy Relationship with Saudi Arabia(forthcoming Oxford University Press), funded in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, Rachel Bronson shows why the partnership became so intimate and the problems that it spawned.

Drawing on a wide range of archival material, declassified documents, and interviews with leading Saudi and American officials, Bronson chronicles a long history of close contact. Contrary to popular belief, Bronson shows that the relationship was never just about “oil for security.” Saudi Arabia’s religiously motivated foreign policy was deemed an asset when fighting “godless communism,” as was Saudi Arabia’s geographic location. From Africa to Afghanistan, Egypt to Nicaragua the two worked to beat back Soviet influence. Overlapping strategic interests helped compartmentalized differences around issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict. But decisions taken for hard headed Cold War purposes left behind a legacy that today enflames the Middle East.

In today’s fight against terrorism Saudi Arabia is both part of the problem and part of the solution. Not withstanding real troubles, Bronson outlines the dangers of allowing the relationship to further deteriorate. Saudi Arabia, she notes, faces a violent and zealous opposition. If this opposition gains complete control of the state's huge resources, it will direct its efforts towards destroying the United States, auguring a true clash of civilizations.