Policy Analysis

The collapse of the Soviet bloc and the end of the Cold War have come almost too swiftly to be registered. As Czechoslovakia's dissident-turned-President Vaclav Havel has said, one no longer has even the time to be astonished. No less striking than the demise of Soviet power has been the

Executive Summary Since the formation of Iraq in 1920, the Sunni minority has held power and played the Shi'a and Kurdish minorities against each other. Aside from their shared enmity towards the Baghdad government, the Shi'a and the Kurds have nothing in common. The Iraqi opposition is structurally weak and

Executive Summary Israel enters a new peace process at a time of considerable short-term safety and long-term uncertainty. The social and demographic consequences of the Gulf War have not fully expressed themselves on the politics of the region, while the military role of Iraq in the future is hard to

Executive Summary Traditionally, Arab states have been unable and/or unwilling to make peace with Israel for a variety of internal and external reasons -- domestic instability and external weakness in the case of Jordan, ideological and strategic militancy in the case of Syria, domestic opinion and regional weakness in the

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Keynote addresses by Richard Haass, Les Aspin, and Dan Meridor. With Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Ze'ev Schiff, Zalman Shoval, Hussein Hammami, and others.

What I hope to offer here is a Congressional perspective on the Persian Gulf War, the end of the Cold War, and what these developments may mean for the Middle East peace process. The Gulf War in Retrospect First, to the Persian Gulf War: there were many articles and retrospectives

The Syrian regime of Hafez al-Assad has in the past year seemed to change direction, first with tentative moves toward liberalization, then by siding with the American-led coalition that fought against Saddam Hussein and, perhaps most dramatically, by acceding to America’s wish to attend a peace conference with Israel. There

While economic issues have not been a driving force in the Arab-Israeli peace process in the past, they are sure to play a critically important role in the historic negotiations looming ahead. Across the wide Sinai expanse, Egypt and Israel have little to show in the way of economic ties

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Executive SummaryThe defeat of Saddam Hussein and the elimination of Iraq's offensive capabilities have reestablished a favorable balance of power in the Middle East. But the Gulf War has left in its wake serious challenges to American efforts to establish a more stable regional order. This report focuses on four

The Difficulties Encountered in the Gulf Crisis The effort that was mounted last August by President Bush to counter Saddam Hussein's aggression now looks, in light of all that has happened since August 2nd, as though it were foreordained. We are all used to dealing with the fact that the

Keynote addresses by Richard Cheney and Ze'ev Binyamin Begin. With Thomas Freidman, Tahseen Basheer, Ehud Ya'ari, Alexander Haig, and others.

Yesterday John Chancellor bitterly concluded that, "George Bush is supporting Saddam Hussein." The New York Times explained that: "President Bush has decided to let President Saddam Hussein put down rebellions in his country . . . rather than run the risk of splintering Iraq." The situation in Iraq today is

Though Iraq wreaked enormous devastation on Kuwait's oil industry toward the end of the war, Kuwaitis can hope for a fairly rapid recovery after an initial period of sorting out. What may not return to normal is Kuwait's relationship with its Palestinian community and with Jordan. Kuwait and other Gulf

Iraqi efforts to acquire unconventional weapons became a major concern even before the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Chemical weapons produced during the 1980s were used in large quantities against Iranian soldiers and Kurdish civilians. Iraq developed extended range ballistic missiles, and built an infrastructure for development and production of

The U.S. and its coalition partners have insisted on the acceptance in principle of Iraq's responsibility to pay compensation for the loss, damage and injury its aggression has caused. While all agree on the importance of the principle, strong differences exist on how hard to push Iraq for actual cash

Southern Iraq is in revolt. Reliable information is scarce, provided by reconnaissance photos, the reports of panicked refugees, and Iraqi exile groups in Tehran, Damascus, and Beirut. Each has its own ax to grind and credit to claim. Perhaps Saddam will succeed in restoring his authority. Perhaps not. If he