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.
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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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.
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As the 2020 presidential campaign heats up, U.S. politics is getting harder and harder to explain to the rest of the world.
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Qassem Suleimani and Tehran have won the battle for Baghdad. U.S. policymakers should understand that—and leave.
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The U.S. secretary of state appears to have one foot out the door—and that’s exactly what U.S. diplomats have been waiting for.
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The region is accustomed to cycles of protest and political upheaval, so it’s better not to bank on successful revolutions.
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The killing in Baghdad of Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani escalates an already tense contest in Iraq between U.S. and Iran-backed forces, makes the battle against the Islamic State more difficult, and is likely to feed further regional upheaval.
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The benefits of their personal relationship are clear for the Turkish president. But the U.S. president has his reasons, too.
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The Turkish president’s war will likely fail because he doesn’t know what he wants.
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Saudi Arabia’s crown prince will take money from investors in the national oil company—but he’ll be giving up far more than he thinks.
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The Kurds have no choice but to always trust the United States—and to suffer the inevitable consequences.
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Trump and Erdogan resolved few of the sharp U.S.-Turkish differences over defense and Middle East policy but the visit likely boosted Erdogan’s stature at home.
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A major new report about the Syrian war raises the question of whether Washington ever cared about it in the first place.
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President Donald J. Trump’s announcement of a troop withdrawal in northern Syria ahead of a Turkish invasion could revive the Islamic State and the Syrian civil war, and signal the end of U.S. influence there.
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If the United States is done fighting for Saudi Arabia’s oil, it's done fighting for the entire region.
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The United States came up with “maximum pressure”—but the Israeli government is the only one carrying it out.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future is on the line as Israel votes for the second time in 2019.
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As U.S. policymakers worry about their special relationship with Ankara, Turkey’s president knows it's already dead.
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The Trump administration’s nonresponse to Iranian aggression has sent an unmistakable message.
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The United States should stop treating the region as secondary to the rest of the Middle East.
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The death of Mohamed Morsi is the latest milestone along the country’s slide into terminal irrelevance.