The Great Leap Forward - Zachary Abuza
Too often the news surrounding terrorism is dominated by the headline-catching acts of terrorism, such as last summer’s twin suicide bombings in Jakarta, or the take-down of terrorist operatives such as Dr. Azahari bin Hussin or Noordin Mohammad Top. Less is written about success in counter-terrorism operations. No country deserves more credit for improving its counter-terrorism operations and capabilities than Indonesia. While terrorism will never be eliminated, Indonesia has developed a strong and effective counter-terrorist force, while at the same time consolidating its democratic transition. There is no other country in the world that can make this claim....read more
Recent Updates
Abbas' Negotiation Dilemmas
This Update features some new analysis of the position of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations - negotiations about negotiations, one might say - continue....read more
Inside Iran's Opposition Movement
This Update features some new insights into the goals and motivations of Iran's "Green" opposition movement. The first entry comes from Iranian-American analyst Mehdi Khalaji, who writes about the experience of his own father, an ayatollah now languishing in an Irani...read more
Palestinian-Israeli peace talks in 2010?
This Update looks at the prospects for resuming and progressing Israeli-Palestinian talks - which have been in limbo since 2008 - in 2010. First up, David Makovsky from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy previews US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell&r...read more
Yemen and Al-Qaeda/ The Nature of the Islamist Terrorist Threat
The case of underwear bomber, Nigerian-born but Yemen-trained Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and new revelations that as many as 20 other individuals are being trained in Yemen to bomb airplanes using the same technique , has strongly raised the profile of Yemen as a source of terr...read more
Opinion
The legacy of a true friend - Colin Rubenstein
Almost uniquely among Muslim leaders and the heads of Muslim states, Wahid was not reticent about his friendship for Israel and his close ties and desire for even closer ones with the Jewish people. ...read more
Time's Up for Iran Sanctions - Colin Rubenstein
If anyone still had any doubts about Iran’s nuclear intentions, these should have been dispelled by last week’s revelations in The Times of documents showing Iran experimented with neutron trigger technology. Such technology can only be used in nuclear weaponry. This ...read more
Iran is playing a dangerous game with Israel - Bren Carlill
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is playing a dangerous game. If he's not careful, he may find his country embroiled in military conflict. Why? Because history is filled with people making threats against Jews and then attempting to carry them out. But these days, Jews defen...read more
Terrorist television would violate our racial hatred laws - Colin Rubenstein
ACMA did not see any problem with an advertisement on al-Manar soliciting donations for the al-Emdad charity, which is used primarily for supporting the families of Hezbollah fighters. Giving it money is effectively indistinguishable from giving money to Hezbollah, which is illeg...read more
Background
The Uneasy Silence - Amotz Asa-El
An uneasy silence has descended on Palestinian-Israeli relations. What began with a new American administration’s energetic initiative, and then produced some improbable concessions on the part of a new Israeli leadership, has since petered out in the face of Palestinian pa...read more
Battleground Yemen - Jonathan Spyer
Al-Qaeda is not the only major problem facing Yemen. In fact, it could be argued that the country manages to encapsulate in acute form the three main causes of political turmoil in the Middle East: a dictatorial government, vulnerability to Iranian subversion through local jihadi...read more
Essay: The Great Satan Myth - Abbas Milani
The Iranian regime has never found itself more vulnerable. And, with this vulnerability, it has never leaned more heavily on its own narrative of history. This narrative, of course, has a central antagonist, a character conjured as the “Great Satan”....read more
Wahid's Way - Theodore Friend
The genial complexity of Wahid's character, which drew millions to him, was not adequate to the pressures of the presidency. But his life, career, and elements of caprice contain abundant clues for anyone who would understand modern Sufism, global Islam, and the Republic of Indon...read more
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