The Face-Off
Donald Trump has promised a foreign policy of muscular retrenchment, in which a better-resourced U.S. military intimidates our enemies without serving as a global cop. More than any pr...
Wahhabism
Protecting Palestine
Not long ago, I was talking to a Fatah official about Palestinian aspirations, especially his party’s sharp emotions about Hamas, the Palestinian fundamentalist movement that rules Gaza and...
Op-eds
Trump Wants to Shake Up the World Order? Here’s Where He Should Start
The specifics have often fluctuated, but the core of Donald Trump’s foreign policy vision has remained steady. He believes, as the Brookings Institution’s Thomas Wright has noted, &ld...
Op-eds
Muslims in America
One of the most striking features of the British cemetery at Gallipoli is the attention given to honoring the diversity of the dead. Final farewells from loved ones carved upon stone plaques line...
Op-eds
Don’t Let Wahhabism Off the Hook
Now that American victims of terrorism can sue Saudi Arabia on allegations of facilitating 9/11, the kingdom's counterterrorism record is under the microscope like never before....
Op-eds
Saudi Arabia: Friend or Foe? Answer: Both
An American media spotlight on Saudi Arabia re-appeared with the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Did the kingdom play a nefarious role in that terrible day? If so, should 9/11...
Op-eds
Saudi Arabia Strikes Back
For those concerned about the fallout from President Barack Obama and his administration’s nuclear deal with Iran — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actio...
Op-eds
What’s in a Name?
Barack Obama’s habit of avoiding Islamic nomenclature and highlighting American gun violence whenever Muslim terrorists strike is surely, in part, a product of his fear of anti-Muslim xenop...
Op-eds
Done Deal?
All administrations are short-sighted. Even the brightest, most reflective people can develop acute tunnel vision when they join the paper-pushing, crisis-a-minute senior ranks of the National Se...
Op-eds
The Mr. Rogers Doctrine
Barack Obama last week visited Saudi Arabia, an unusual nation with which the United States has had a relationship that can be accurately characterized as both strategic and strange — and o...
Op-eds
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
As has been obvious since his time as the Islamic Republic’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Javad Zarif is capable of creating a distortion field around him that often r...
Op-eds
Islamic State Militants Target Saudi Arabia
Iran isn’t alone in issuing dire threats against Saudi Arabia — the Islamic State has ratcheted up a propaganda campaign against the Gulf kingdom’s ruling family, denouncing the...
Op-eds
A Backlash Builds Against Saudi Salafism
The recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino have once again put Saudi Arabia's brand of Salafi Islam, known as Wahhabism, under the microscope. In both Europe and the United Sta...
Op-eds
Michelle’s Dangerous Journey to Qatar
First Lady Michelle Obama, on her first solo trip to the Middle East, is scheduled Wednesday...
Op-eds
Saudi Textbooks Propagate Intolerance
Here we go again. According to a new government report, Saudi Arabia published yet another year’s worth of public school textbooks that promote hateful ideas. This represents only the...
Op-eds
Victory Without Soldiers?
With the war in Syria becoming ever more complex and murderous, it’s worthwhile to revisit a guiding principle of Barack Obama: The use of American military power is likely to do more harm...
Op-eds
Saudi Arabia Honors Its Nastiest Clerical Ideologues
On Friday, September 2, a group of over fifty Saudi clerics joined in a petition condemning “Russian intervention against Syria&r...
Op-eds
It’s Time for the United States to Start Worrying About a Saudi Collapse
As if there weren’t already enough problems to worry about in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia might be headed for trouble. From plummeting oil prices, to foreign policy missteps, to growing t...
Op-eds
The Saudi Military Is Mobilizing. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
The Saudis "will definitely be defeated," crows one Iranian general. Riyad...
Op-eds
When the U.S. Will Intervene in the Gulf, and Other Notes From the Camp David Summit
I've held a number of discussions with people who have direct knowledge of the conversations that took place at this month’s Camp David Summit between President Obama and leaders from...