MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Setting aside the questionable wisdom of the United States becoming involved in a rapidly evolving civil war in Libya, the larger, more urgent conversation should be about what the political endgame might look like, both there and in the region as a whole.  The pathway from a popular rebellion against dictators to [...]

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WASHINGTON — The middle of a budget battle is a heck of a time for a foreign crisis.  The United States now finds itself in the midst of defining moments both domestically, with debates playing out on the future of government spending, and internationally, with the rapidly unfolding revolutions in the Middle East.  The repercussions [...]

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WASHINGTON — The belated international intervention in Libya serves important humanitarian purposes. But these are not the only concerns shaping the actions of Europe, the United States, and regional partners.  The sudden show of French and British leadership in response to the Libyan crisis also reflects some very tangible security concerns – concerns shared by [...]

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WASHINGTON — Mythological allusions were probably not on the minds of U.S. military planners, but their designation of coalition operations against Libya – Odyssey Dawn – has a certain poetic appropriateness about it. For much of the past few weeks, U.S. President Barack Obama and his administration have resembled the Greek hero Odysseus, navigating the [...]

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AUSTIN, Texas — As Western governments wrestle with debates over whether to intervene in Libya—and if so, how—all sides frequently resort to a favorite debating point — the historical analogy.  Opponents of military intervention invoke the grim prospects of “another Iraq” or “another Somalia” as cautionary notes against Western force being initiated in a troubled [...]

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Even if Muammar Qaddafi manages to hold on to power in Tripoli—and this looks unlikely—there will be no going back to the old order in Libya or the region.

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WASHINGTON – With all the focus on democracy and despots, the rising price of food is being overlooked as a trigger in the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East. Food prices are at an all-time high, and while the impacts are hardly felt in the United States and Europe, where basic commodities are [...]

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BERLIN – It is about 300 kilometers (185 miles) from Tunis to the Italian island of Lampedusa, as many current Tunisian migrants could tell you. From Alexandria, Egypt, the closest EU point is the Greek island of Crete, about four times as far. But immigrants departing Egypt would be ill-advised to head there. Rather, they [...]

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WASHINGTON — Events in Tunisia and Egypt, and unrest across the Arab world from Yemen to Sudan, have shown that Western stability policies for the southern and eastern shore of the Mediterranean were built on sand. For Europe, they are also a severe indictment of European “neighborhood” policies toward the Arab world. For about half [...]

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Whether the Middle East can become — or be made — democratic has been a vexing question for decades.  The current round of political unrest in Tunisia, Egypt, and other Arab countries raises the question again, with profound human and strategic considerations in the balance.  The toppling of the Hariri government by Hezbollah in Lebanon [...]

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