With the region on the verge of implosion, the US needs to learn the hard art of conflict management, because this is one conflict it can run away from, anymore. Indeed, there will be a huge price to pay for staying the distance, which includes staying in Iraq and not shying away from further involvement in other regional affairs, but the price for leaving will have negative ramifications for US interests far beyond the region. Continue reading “The US & Armageddon Lite!”
Category: Sociopolitical Observations
Learning Democracy!
Many analysts and regional experts continue to assert that democracy in our region can only come in the aftermath of a long and well-planned and managed reform process and that for this reason we should really work to alleviate the various external pressures exerted on the various regimes in the region to give them more time to implement the needed reforms. Continue reading “Learning Democracy!”
Con Artists, the Moral High Ground and the Future of Syria!
My friends Scott Lazensky and Mona Yakoubian of the United States Institute for Peace are currently touring Syria meeting with various Syrian officials and dissidents in an attempt to present some assessment of the situation on the ground at this stage. Their visit, however, has given Syrian officials a golden opportunity to issue one denouncement of American policy after another and, more importantly, to make one ridiculous assertion after another. Continue reading “Con Artists, the Moral High Ground and the Future of Syria!”
Secularists & Islamists – The Promise & the Dread
This is the paper that I have prepared during my second stint as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution (October 2005-March 2006). It, too, was too whimsical for publication as a Brookings policy paper. So, here it is. Continue reading “Secularists & Islamists – The Promise & the Dread”
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 