Where We Are Headed with the Trump Peace Plan
It was a holiday like no other in recent memory. On the eve of Simhat Torah 2025, exactly two years on the Jewish calendar to the day of the Hamas attack in 2023, the 20 remaining live hostages were released to ambulances. Watching from a respectful distance, Israeli crowds on the Gaza border cheered. Later […]
Lessons Learned From Fighting Narcoterrorism in South America
The fight against narcoterrorism has returned to the vocabulary of American policymakers. The Trump administration has deployed Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps assets to the Caribbean and destroyed several drug-carrying vessels, just the beginning of a campaign according to the President. This time the US effort is centered on Venezuela, but it is nevertheless […]
No Real Alternative: Why the Gulf Will Rely on the US
Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, on September 9 jarred the region and spurred a new outburst of skepticism about the value of US security commitments. The US has long sought a stable regional environment in which American partners do not attack one another, which the Doha attack obviously disrupted. Nevertheless, the Middle East simply has […]
Postwar Gaza as Leadership Opportunity for Egypt
President Donald Trump’s visit to Sharm el-Sheikh demonstrated the joint convening power of the US and Egypt, gathering at short notice the leaders of Europe and the Middle East to support the Trump Peace Plan. Having helped broker the ceasefire, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi now faces the far harder challenge of shaping what comes next. […]
Palestinian Sovereignty and International Law
In September 2025, France and Great Britain together with several other states recognized a State of Palestine, bringing the total number of UN members that recognize Palestine to 157. But these declarations of recognition do not confer legal sovereignty. Under the international Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (Montvideo Convention of 1933), statehood is […]
America’s Options in Afghanistan
Four years have passed since the United States withdrew in chaos from Afghanistan, abandoning important projects, leaving behind billions of dollars of equipment and handing the Taliban many other assets in that country. The Taliban still rule Afghanistan. They face a mountain of unresolved problems yet are ready to employ as much force as necessary […]
The Return of Barbarism
Walter Benjamin once observed, “There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” His insight points to the violent and bloody foundations upon which modern civilization was built: great monuments, cities, palaces, and fortifications often rose on the backs of slave labor, wars, and exploitation. Today, we […]
The New Syrian Regime’s Dilemma
On September 24, Syrian President Ahmad al-Shara’a addressed the UN General Assembly in New York, where he is still on the UN sanctions list for his leadership of an al-Qa’ida affiliate (though he is likely to be de-listed soon). The transformation of al-Shara’a from wanted terrorist into respected statesman has taken place with remarkable speed. […]
The German - Polish Relationship, Soft Bigotry and Long Grievances
“We must all turn our backs upon the horrors of the past and look to the future.”Winston Churchill, September 19, 1946, Zurich Germany and Poland are European Union and NATO members, neighbors committed to the fight against an expansionist Russia with a combined massive economic might. They should be the closest of natural allies, but […]
The Battle for Gaza City
Gaza City, one of the last two Hamas strongholds, is the target of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in an ongoing operation. It is a large metropolitan area stretching from Shati, the historic refugee camp on the beach, through the wealthy neighborhood of Rimal, around to Zeitoun and the old quarter of historic Gaza. In […]
When Erdoğan Shifted Focus to the Kurds in Syria
2015 marked a change in the Syria policy of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He began to walk back his initial goal of toppling the Asad regime and turned towards Syria’s surging Kurdish forces. Specifically, he wanted to prevent the emergence of a Kurdish-controlled enclave along Turkey’s border with Syria that could affect Turkey’s own […]
Europe’s Far Right on the March
On September 13, British activist Tommy Robinson organized a march called “Unite the Kingdom.” It attracted about 110,000 people who listened to the French essayist and politician Eric Zemmour warn that “the great replacement of our European people by people coming from the south and of Muslim culture” was taking place. They heard tech entrepreneur […]
