PAST EVENT
Monday, November 09, 2009
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
On November 9, the Brookings Doha Center hosted a policy discussion with H.E. Mohamad Chatah, the Lebanese minister of finance, H.E. Ghassan Khatib, director of the Palestinian Government Media Center, and H.E. Ayad Al Samarrai, speaker of the Iraqi Parliament on the project of inclusive national dialogue and state-building in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and Iraq. The speakers examined past and current nationally-driven conflict resolution efforts. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Kenneth M. Pollack, November 08, 2009, The Brookings Institution
In October, Kenneth Pollack travelled to Iraq as part of an evaluation team for the Iraq Joint Campaign Plan - the fully integrated political, military, economic and diplomatic approach to be pursued there. During his trip, Pollack witnessed a growing sense of security and normalcy, but also a continued need for U.S. presence to stem the threat of renewed civil war. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Kenneth M. Pollack, October 26, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Kenneth Pollack says the massive bombings in Baghdad on October 25 that killed over 150 people are a problem for both Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki and U.S. President Obama. Pollack concludes the bombing calls Maliki's claims of keeping Iraq secure into question while also bringing forward the idea that U.S. troops may need to return to Baghdad – despite previous U.S. plans – back into consideration. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Raj M. Desai, October 23, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Although violence in Iraq has decreased, Raj Desai states other transitions are needed before U.S. businesses feel comfortable about the Iraqi investment climate. In addition to security, Desai offers three sets of fundamental reforms to convince investors that Iraq is really "open for business." Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Jason Campbell, Michael E. O'Hanlon and Jeremy Shapiro, October 07, 2009, The New York Times
Iraq remains between peace and war while the situation in Afghanistan still appears to be deteriorating, and Pakistan is doing better than Afghanistan but more progress is needed. Jason Campbell, Michael O'Hanlon and Jeremy Shapiro examine leading metrics from all three countries to assess how well the counterinsurgency and stabilization operations are faring. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Jason Campbell, Michael E. O'Hanlon and Jeremy Shapiro, October 01, 2009, Policy Review
Correctly sizing the military force and tracking results on the ground are key to success in counterinsurgency and stabilization missions, write Jason Campbell, Michael O'Hanlon, and Jeremy Shapiro. To determine how the U.S. strategy is working, they assess a range of indicators to measure progress in Afghanistan and relate them to lessons learned from the conflict in Iraq. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Justin Vaïsse, September 01, 2009, Le Figaro
Justin Vaïsse lays out the delicate international issues that await President Obama in the fall. He concludes none of them holds any promise of easy resolution, and the principles on which Obama founded his foreign policy will be severly tested. (French) Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Kenneth M. Pollack, August 25, 2009, The National Interest
With renewed violence striking Iraq, Ken Pollack writes that the United States is still all that stands between the war-torn country and anarchy. Pollack argues that the United States should use its power and influence within Iraq to ensure that the country does not slide back into civil war. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Michael E. O'Hanlon, August 04, 2009, The Washington Examiner
Michael O'Hanlon assesses Barack Obama's foreign policy record halfway through his first year as president. From Russia to China and India, O'Hanlon concludes that Obama is handling situations about as well as possible. In Iraq and Afghanistan, O’Hanlon believes Obama has been willing to take important advice from commanders on the ground as well as Secretary Gates to make tough but well executed decisions. Read More
VIDEO
Michael E. O'Hanlon, July 28, 2009
Michael O’Hanlon says that conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq presented Obama with a situation that none of his five predecessors had to contend with in their early months in the White House.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Michael E. O'Hanlon, July 21, 2009, The Washington Examiner
Michael O'Hanlon says that Iraq is going well on the whole, but there could be trouble brewing between the Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga over land interests. To address the situation, O'Hanlon recommends a U.S. envoy to Iraq be named, Kirkuk to be supervised internationally and negotiations of new "green lines" for the Kurdistan border. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Bruce Riedel, July 09, 2009, bitterlemons-international.org
The withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq's cities is the beginning of the end of the American part of the war, writes Bruce Riedel. He outlines both the enormous costs already paid by going to war and explains how al-Qaeda and Iran benefited from years of U.S. foreign policy focusing almost entirely on Iraq. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Elizabeth Ferris, July 07, 2009, UCLA Conference on Peace and Reconciliation: Embracing the Displaced
Displacement is one of the tragic consequences of conflict. Elizabeth Ferris argues that once a conflict ends, resolving displacement and preventing future displacement is inextricably linked with achieving a lasting peace. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Michael E. O'Hanlon, July 06, 2009, The Daily Beast
Though there are parallels between Iraq and Afghanistan, says Michael O’Hanlon, Afghanistan’s history of war makes the Afghan people realistic in their expectations about the future—and grateful for even modest progress. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Elizabeth Ferris, July 02, 2009, International Association for the Study of Forced Migration Annual Conference, Nicosia, Cyprus
Recently discussion has turned to the prospects for the large-scale return of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) to Iraq. More than 4 million Iraqis have been displaced, either internally or externally. And while the Iraqi and US governments, policymakers in the region, and humanitarian actors assume that most will return to Iraq in the near future, Elizabeth Ferris points out that experience with other displacement crises indicates that return will be neither automatic nor straightforward. Read More