Steven A. Cook, CFR’s Douglas Dillon fellow and an expert on the Middle East, says a sense of normalcy pervades Beirut despite the continuing political standoff.

Conditions in Iraq remain “very unpredictable, very dangerous,” says Rachel Bronson, Olin Senior Fellow and Director of Middle East and Gulf Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. That’s the re…

Steven Cook says Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ call for a two-state negotiated solution was "a shrewd move" becuase it puts pressure on the Hamas-led PA government, but also serves to constrai…

Likening the leadership in Damascus to The Sopranos, Steven A. Cook, an Arab affairs expert at the Council, says the UN report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is c…

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’s recent West Point speech promoted the need for better strategic thinking by the U.S. military to supplant a current emphasis on counterinsurgency tactics and natio…