Toward A New U.S.-Middle East Strategy is a joint Saban Center at Brookings – Council on Foreign Relations project staffed by Middle East experts from both policy establishments. The strategy group, formally launched in July 2007, is conducting in-depth research, fact-finding trips to the region, dialogue with regional officials, and consultation with American policymakers in an effort to develop a new Middle East strategy for the next president.

When the next president assumes office, he or she will be immediately confronted with multiple crises in the Middle East: how to contain the spillover effects of Iraq’s civil war; how to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its assertion of influence across the region; how to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and resolve the Palestinian problem; how to manage instability in Lebanon; how to deal with the threat of radical Islamic terrorism; and how to promote political and economic reforms in the Middle East in a more effective way.

The joint Brookings-Council on Foreign Relations project will present a non-partisan policy blueprint in November 2008, during the presidential transition period, that the incoming president and his or her advisors can use as the basis for their Middle East strategy.

The project marks the first time in the history of the Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations that a group of their experts are partnering to develop strategic recommendations.