Steven A. Cook says another year of struggle is to be expected in Egypt, as Egypt's future rests with two familiar powers playing very unfamiliar roles: the military and the Muslim Brotherhood.
See more in Egypt, Democratization, Political Movements
Steven A. Cook discusses Turkish domestic politics after the uprisings.
See more in Turkey, Democracy and Human Rights, Political Movements
Steven A. Cook says the Turkish model of military rule is wrong for Egypt.
See more in Turkey, Egypt, Democracy and Human Rights, Political Movements
The most realistic and acceptable alternative models of governance in Afghanistan are decentralized democracy and a system of internal mixed sovereignty.
See more in Afghanistan, Wars and Warfare
Despite international pressure, Iran appears to be continuing its march toward getting a nuclear bomb.
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Despite international pressure, Iran appears to be continuing its march toward getting a nuclear bomb.
See more in United States, Iran
Bruce Rutherford's Egypt After Mubarak is an ambitious effort to explain how the Muslim Brotherhood, the judiciary, and the business sector can work in parallel, if not exactly together, to influence Egypt's political future.
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The situation in Iraq is improving. With the right strategy, the United States will eventually be able to draw down troops without sacrificing stability.
See more in Iraq, Civil Reconstruction
The Bush administration wants to contain Iran by rallying the support of Sunni Arab states and now sees Iran's containment as the heart of its Middle East policy: a way to stabilize Iraq, declaw Hezbollah, and restart the Arab-Israeli peace process. But the strategy is unsound and impractical, and it will probably further destabilize an already volatile region.
See more in Iran, Conflict Prevention
Writing in Foreign Affairs, CFR's Ray Takeyh says resuming diplomatic and economic ties with Tehran could bolster Iran's pragmatists and sideline its radicals.
See more in Iran, U.S. Strategy and Politics
The prognosis for Iraq looks bad and is getting worse. If the trend does not improve soon, the United States may have no choice but to cut its losses and get out. Recently, many have looked to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to engineer a change in strategy that might arrest this decline, and the ISG's report does indeed contain some useful ideas and worthwhile recommendations. But on the whole, it offers the political groundwork for a complete withdrawal more than it offers a sustainable solution to the conflict.
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See more in Iraq, Foreign Policy History
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See more in Democracy Promotion, Religion and Politics
Ray Takeyh examines examples of foreign policy failures turned success, including "the shift in U.S. containment policy during the early stages of the Truman presidency; the changed U.S. approach to the Vietnam War after Richard Nixon's 1968 election; and George W. Bush's surge in Iraq."
See more in United States, U.S. Strategy and Politics, Foreign Policy History
Steven A. Cook writes, "As America's new secretary of state arrives in Cairo, it's still not clear the United States knows what it's dealing with."
Though the results of Israel's recent election point to the creation of a new and potentially more conciliatory government, Steven A. Cook says tensions between Jerusalem and Ankara run too deeply for a single election to make much difference.
The David Rockefeller Studies Program is CFR’s “think tank.” Its work is integral to achieving CFR’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.
