So much for those who were hoping that the recently concluded — but clearly unfinished — nuclear deal with Iran would serve as the basis for a replay of President Nixon’s historic opening to China. As the next phase of nuclear talks begins this week in Vienna, Tehran is on a tear. This time it’s in Yemen where news accounts report that a convoy of Iranian cargo ships…
While the United States moved out of Yemen last week, this week a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of a reported 10 mostly Arab states moved into Yemen with airstrikes aimed at the continuing chaos there. The immediate — but not the only — target of the coalition air campaign is the Houthi rebels who recently swept out of northern Yemen, captured the capital, Sanaa, and are…
Yemen has been engulfed in an intensifying civil war that has weakened U.S. counterterrorism efforts, created a vacuum...…
You have to wonder whether the White House has a good grip on the global terrorism fight considering a number of strategic missteps, judgments and statements it has made during the last few years. There was the total pullout from Iraq, the “al-Qaeda on the run” claim, the mishandling of Syria, the dismissal of Islamic State as a “JV” team — and the latest foreign policy…
Last September, President Obama told us that his strategy for taking down the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria would be similar to the one his administration had “successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.” Those are words the prez probably would like to have back, especially with regards to Yemen. News reports indicate Yemen is falling apart; an insurgent…
Last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris against the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and a Jewish grocery store that killed 17...…
Last week, a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee held a hearing provocatively titled “Is Al-Qaeda Winning?” The answers...…
President Barack Obama will meet with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Friday amid mounting reports of acute Saudi disillusionment with Obama’s foreign policy. The Saudis, like other Middle Eastern allies including Israel, are concerned that Obama cannot be trusted to safeguard their national interests in the face of Iran’s military buildup, the political turbulence of the…
The State Department closed 21 U.S. embassies over the weekend and issued a travel alert for Americans regarding the...…
In his State of the Union address, President Obama showed a stunning lack of reality on terrorism and the Arab Spring....…
The “Arab Spring” has targeted several regimes in the Middle East: Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak has stepped down, leaving the future of the country uncertain; Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh cling to power; Libya’s Muammar Qadhafi has vowed to fight to the death despite the United States and NATO lining up against him. The U.S. needs more clear and…
When al Qaeda was just a startup terrorist enterprise, the Sudanese government offered the group safe harbor. But after a few years, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States began to take notice of what was going on in that little incubator. They turned up the heat. By 1996, Osama bin Laden was looking to relocate. No longer feeling safe in Sudan, he moved al…
There have been at least three attempted terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in the last year and a half: the November 5, 2009, shooting at Fort Hood, Texas; the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing over Detroit; and the failed car bombing in Times Square in New York City. All three were perpetrated by men with ties to al-Qaeda and radical Islam. But despite a clear…
Abstract: In June 2011, President Barack Obama released a new National Strategy for Counterterrorism. This document profoundly misreads the nature of the global transnational threat. Following this strategy for a few years will result in a resurgent threat as dangerous as that shortly after 9/11. Dealing with the “next wave” of transnational terrorism will require a…
As turmoil and transformation sweep across the Middle East and North Africa, President Obama cannot afford to dwell on one crisis at a time. In particular, the United States must not neglect the ongoing crisis in Yemen, a country that has served as a base of operations for terrorist attacks aimed at the U.S. and its allies. A double dose of diplomacy and engagement is now…
The failed attempt to bomb an American airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day has focused attention on the rising threat posed by the al-Qaeda franchise based in Yemen, long a stronghold for radical Islamist forces. Yemen offers al-Qaeda many advantages: the protection of friendly tribal leaders opposed to a weak central government, the support of radical…
Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh has conditionally agreed to step down from power 30 days after a tentative agreement is signed with a coalition of opposition parties. But this face-saving political deal, brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council, has already been rejected by tens of thousands of protesters who adamantly demand an end to Saleh’s 32-year rule.…
Abstract: In 2011 and 2012, a wave of popular uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East shook the region’s autocratic regimes, prompting euphoric reactions in the West about an “Arab Spring” and a supposed new age of democracy. While the overthrow of authoritarian regimes can give democracy a chance to bloom, it has also created opportunities for a wide spectrum of…
The October 12 bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden in Yemen was not a direct reaction to intensifying Israeli-Palestinian violence, but most likely part of a long-term campaign to drive American influence out of the Middle East, overthrow moderate Arab governments, and replace them with radical anti-Western regimes. The terrorist operation apparently…
Airstrikes carried out by U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles (commonly referred to as drones) have been criticized for...…
In Monday’s foreign policy debate, Governor Mitt Romney briefly mentioned the importance of economic reform in...…
Less than four minutes into last night’s presidential debate, Governor Mitt Romney listed northern Mali as one of the...…
Last night’s debate between President Obama and Governor Romney was supposed to focus on foreign policy. It turned into...…
Tonight’s final presidential debate will focus solely on foreign policy. Moderator Bob Schieffer announced that the...…
Senior Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs