Middle East

Turkey; Returning of Europe’s headache
23
Jul
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Turkey; Returning of Europe’s headache

BY: Damir Nazarov Turkey expands the borders of intervention throughout the Middle East despite the abundance of economic problems and the prospect of being drawn into a series of large-scale conflicts, under the slogan of "protecting democracy" . In almost every hot spot in the region, the Turks built military bases or sent officers to train local AK Parti loyalists. Ankara imposes and justifies its occupation of Muslim countries by protecting local " democratic forces "(North-Western Syria, Libya), fighting "terrorism "(Northern Syria and Iraq), "helping allies "(Qatar, Somalia, Yemen) and "cooperation for economic purposes" (Sudan, Djibouti)*. The question arises, where…
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Foreign Affairs: America’s Opportunity in the Middle East; Diplomacy Could Succeed Where Military Force Has Failed
12
Jun
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Foreign Affairs: America’s Opportunity in the Middle East; Diplomacy Could Succeed Where Military Force Has Failed

U.S. foreign policy hands are rightly grappling with how engaged the United States should be in the Middle East. Thought-provoking essays by Martin Indyk (in The Wall Street Journal) and Mara Karlin and Tamara Cofman Wittes (in Foreign Affairs) have argued that the United States has few remaining vital interests—those worth going to war over—in the region. Washington should “do less” in the Middle East, as Karlin and Wittes put it, and lighten the U.S. footprint because, as the headline of Indyk’s essay noted, it “isn’t worth it.” Gone are the days when 180,000 U.S. troops fought in Iraq or when spiking…
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