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President Trump sent U.S. troops to the border with Mexico to supplement the work of authorities there. President Biden pledges a new approach as pressures mount along the boundary.
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
Featured
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.
Current Projects
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It’s been a difficult and dizzying few months for Turkey—which is just the way the president likes it.
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Why is the United States still struggling to figure out what to do about the Assad regime?
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Great power competition is altering the prospects for managing conflicts in the Middle East. As policymakers rethink the United States’ role in the region, they should avoid the kind of strategic errors that have provided opportunities for other major powers, notably China and Russia, to undermine U.S. policy.
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The pontiff’s Middle Eastern diplomacy may seem superficial, but it could make a huge practical impact.
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The Biden administration wants to downgrade the region. Here are the countries he can ignore—and the ones he can’t.
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The new president wants his strategy to seem reassuring. It’s anything but.
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Investors flocking to Riyadh’s “Davos in the Desert” prove that nobody knows what accountability for Mohammed bin Salman would even mean.
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The U.S. military secured Joe Biden’s inauguration. But the new administration also needs to treat the armed forces as a potential threat.
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China and Russia are spreading their vaccines—and forging new ties—to some of Washington’s closest allies.
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Ten years after the start of the Arab Spring, it’s time to accept that the revolution may never return.
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Every four years, Washington’s ideas industry indulges in its favorite ritual: trying—and mostly failing—to influence the next U.S. president.
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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.