A sweeping narrative account of the last five years in the Middle East and a timely argument of how and why the Arab uprisings failed.
About the Expert
Expert Bio
Steven A. Cook is Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies and director of the International Affairs Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is an expert on Arab and Turkish politics as well as U.S.-Middle East policy. Cook is the author of False Dawn: Protest, Democracy, and Violence in the New Middle East; The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square, which won the 2012 gold medal from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Ruling but Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey. Oxford University Press is publishing his next book, The End Of Ambition: America’s Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East in 2022.
Cook is a columnist at Foreign Policy magazine. He has also published widely in international affairs journals, opinion magazines, and newspapers, and is a frequent commentator on radio and television. His work can also be found on CFR.org.
Prior to joining CFR, Cook was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution (2001–02) and a Soref research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1995–96).
Cook holds a BA in international studies from Vassar College, an MA in international relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and an MA and a PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania. He speaks Arabic and Turkish and reads French.
Affiliations:
- Foreign Policy, columnist
- Institute of Turkish Studies, board member
- International Capital Strategies, senior advisor
Current Projects
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Once a country loses its sense of national identity, a national unraveling is often not far behind.
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Sensing Trump is on the way out, Israel, the UAE, and Turkey are trying to squeeze as much out of the United States as they can now.
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On substance and style, authoritarians see an ally in the White House—and hope to keep him there.
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The president has had a handful of successes—but never anything approaching a strategy.
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The United States is threatening to close its outpost in Baghdad. It should have done so yesterday.
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The real achievement of the Abraham Accords isn’t geopolitical—it’s cultural.
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The French president is making a bid to shape the region—but does his reach exceed his grasp?
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The region has always had problems—but it’s now almost past the point of recovery.
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Last week’s deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is the latest reminder that countries are always out for their own interests—and the weak suffer what they must.
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The United Arab Emirates has agreed to normalize relations with Israel, paving the way for other Arab nations to do the same but angering the Palestinians.
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The only political system the country has ever known is collapsing, and it’s never coming back.
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Turkey is standing in the wreckage of a foreign-policy adventure with no discernible strategy.
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A central thread links the unrest across the United States with recent upheavals in the Middle East—the basic demand of the protesters.
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The peace process died of natural causes. Washington’s most extraordinary alliance should too.
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It’s not Benjamin Netanyahu’s coming West Bank annexation that’s shocking—it’s Washington’s surprised reaction to it.
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The country has another new prime minister nominee—but no new hopes of success.
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Moscow spent years building influence in the region—and lost it all playing hardball with Riyadh.
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The pandemic will soon magnify the threats festering in the Middle East’s longest-running war.
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By killing the Middle East’s sense of community, the region’s dictators have helped the pandemic on its death march.
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The war in Idlib is a growing humanitarian crisis, a potential disaster for Ankara—and a problem that doesn’t bear on Washington.
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Arab countries are looking for partners who aren’t bogged down by chaos ranging from impeachment to Iowa.
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The eulogies for Egypt’s fourth president focused on his downfall, but history will remember his overlooked accomplishments while in office.
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The most effective plan against the Islamic Republic has always been the most obvious—and the one nobody in Washington seems willing to try.