Facing failure in Lebanon
Why the U.S. should stop subsidizing Tehran’s proxy
Fouad Ajami
Lebanon, America, and the Courage of Fouad Ajami
For his courage to think independently, and for his honesty in tackling Arab failure, Ajami became the guiding light for many Arab thinkers after him.
Op-eds
The Saudi Evolution
Fouad Ajami had an odd fondness for Saudi Arabia. He was an Americanized, secular Shiite with European sensibilities who, truth be told, had pretty much burned out on the ugliness of the modern Arab world. He...
Op-eds
Bringing the Middle East Back Home
The American Orientalist Class attempts to paint a fantasy Middle Eastern landscape on the American canvas
Op-eds
A Historian in Full
The university flag at Princeton is flying at half-mast. It’s an appropriate tribute to Bernard Lewis, who died on May 19, less than a fortnight from his 102nd birthday. Professor Lewis was...
Op-eds
Does Al Jazeera deserve to die?
The Gulf Cooperation Council comprises six nations, all of them Arab, Muslim, ruled by royals, and fabulously wealthy thanks to vast reserves of petroleum. With so much in common, you might expec...
Op-eds
A Baleful Peace Process
To be outrageously iconoclastic among the Washington foreign-policy crowd is easy: Just suggest that the Israeli-Arab peace process is not merely pointless but actually damaging to America’...
Op-eds
The Disinformation Age
Walter Cronkite, the great CBS anchorman from 1962 to 1981, was called “the most trusted man in America” — and polling supported that claim. He’d conclude his CBS Even...
Op-eds
Qatar Journalism
Al Jazeera America launched last week. The new television station features such broadcast luminaries as Soledad O’Brien, Joie Chen, Sheila MacVicar, John Seigentha...
Op-eds
From Al Gore to Al Jazeera
A shorter distance than one might have hoped.
Op-eds
How Orientalism Shaped Obama
The White House’s response to the anti-Islam video is proof of the enduring influence of Edward Said’s ideas
Op-eds
Nostra Culpa
The lazy days of August were overshadowed by the latest round of speculation on whether Israel will attack Iran — an ongoing guessing game that has produced ponderous studie...
Op-eds
The Real War Redux: Syria’s Only One Battlefield, Stupid
Thanks to Claire Berlinski, we discover that the Turks are all of a sudden worried that the Arab Spr...
Op-eds
Policy Experts Urge President Obama to Take Immediate Action to Establish Safe Zones in Syria
Washington, D.C.—A bipartisan group of sixty-two foreign policy experts and former U.S. government officials signed an open letter today urging President Obama to adopt a strategy that will...
Press Releases
How Assad’s Fall Will Lay Ruin to the Alawis’ Once-in-a-Millennium Promised Land
A small, marginalized people, kicked around the Middle East for centuries by Muslim empires, finally carves out an independent home for itself on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. But life...
Op-eds
How About Leading from the Front?
According to recent news reports, the Romney foreign policy team is trying to figure out what the presumptive Republican candidate thinks America’s role in the world should be. He’s b...
Op-eds
Re: Let Syria Be
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Andy and I have moved...
Op-eds
Taking Damascus, One, Two, Three
Although Bashar al-Assad could still kill off the revolt against his tyranny, it seems increasingly unlikely. The rebellion today is far larger—geographically and numerically—than the...
Op-eds
World War
Speaking at the Pentagon on January 5th, President Obama proclaimed: “Even as our troops continue to fight in Afghanistan, the tide of war is receding.” He could not be more...
Op-eds
You Cannot Reform a Totalitarian (You’ve Got to Defeat Him)
Back when I was even younger, and living in Rome, the main topic of conversation was of course Communism. Italy had the largest Communist Party outside the Soviet Union, and it was forever on the...