Despite widespread optimism that North Korea might agree to permanently dismantle its nuclear program, there have been some unnerving signs in recent days. Matt Dupuis, over at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has written up a must-read analysis of the recent developments.

The Iranian populace, a new poll has revealed, is a heck of a lot more moderate than their government. Take, for example, the fact that 80% of Iranians favor an end to the nuclear program in exchange for international aid.

The Opposite Direction, hosted by Faisal al-Qassem, is the Arab world’s most popular program. Broadcast on al-Jazeera, Qassem’s debate show regularly pits two people against each other to discuss highly controversial topics. I’ve written about the show before, and noted that al-Jazeera, by facilitating such programs, has been an awesome force for change in the Middle East. Recently, The Opposite Direction hosted a debate on this explosive question: do Islamists or secularists pose...

Anwar Ibrahim, writing in The Washington Post recently, makes a very compelling argument about the upcoming Turkish elections. Although the situation is often painted as a conflict between Islamism and secularism, this characterization is misleading. Instead, Ibrahim argues, the elections are a struggle “between the forces of freedom and democracy on the one hand and authoritarianism on the other.” The outcome will decide whether Turkey continues down the modernizing path it was set...

Reading The Washington Post last night, I came across a fascinating piece that points out some of the early, visible differences between the governing style of Gordon Brown versus that of Tony Blair. Brown is less excitable and more calculating, for one thing, and it has already won him some praise. In a particularly interesting tidbit, the article depicts Brown’s steady, careful approach to the foiled terrorist plot: Brown’s response to the incidents — in which a group of foreign-born...

About two weeks, Glenn Greenwald wrote a widely-cited post that questioned the oft-stated notion of a strong al-Qaeda role in the Iraqi insurgency. That the Bush administration, and specifically its military commanders, decided to begin using the term “Al Qaeda” to designate “anyone and everyone we fight against or kill in Iraq” is obvious. All of a sudden, every time one of the top military commanders describes our latest operations or quantifies how many we killed, the enemy...

(Cross-posted at Foreign Policy Watch.) Or that’s at least what some military officials are now saying. Dave Kilcullen, Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor to General Petraeus, had this to say recently: I know some people in the media are already starting to sort of write off the “surge” and say ‘Hey, hang on: we’ve been going since January, we haven’t seen a massive turnaround; it mustn’t be working’. What we’ve been doing to date is putting...

Cross-posted at Foreign Policy Watch. (Stop by and leave a comment!) There is some discussion that Tony Blair might be tapped to become the Middle East envoy representing the international community in its efforts to wage peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Supposedly, it’s the White House that has been pushing this idea. Am I the only one that this strikes as somewhat odd? Indeed, since when has the Bush administration started caring about the Palestinian-Israel conflict? In the...

There has been a lot of talk – as well as confusion – over recent reports and accusations that the Iranians have been arming…their historical enemy, the Taliban.

Cross-posted at Foreign Policy Watch. The Pentagon is buying 172 million bullets for Iraq’s security forces. That’s roughly 500 bullets per soldier. They’ve also put in an order for twenty thousand grenades to arm the Iraqis’ supply of RPG Launchers. All of this military aid raises an important question: given the sectarian and disloyal nature of many of Iraq’s security units, is this really a good call? Of course, ensuring that Iraq’s security forces are strong...

…The Bush administration is not enforcing its own sanctions against Iran.

In 1979, as part of the Camp David Accords, the United States agreed to provide Egypt with roughly 2 billion dollars a year in economic and military assistance. The money, although not publicly acknowledged as such, was something of a bribe. Indeed, for Egypt’s decision to remain neutral in the Cold War, for its agreement to maintain peace with Israel, and for its support of US policies in the region, two billion dollars a year seemed like a pretty fair deal. But now, nearly three decades...

In the past few months, two Congressional delegations have met with members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. American policy towards the Muslim Brotherhood (a popular, Egyptian-based Islamic organization that has been officially banned since 1954) has traditionally been one of non-engagement. But with democracy now being talked about as a remedy to many of the problems plaguing the Middle East, many Congressmen are beginning to realize that it’s important to start talking with the Brotherhood....

Al-Hurra, the American-sponsored Arabic television network, has been embroiled in controversy in recent weeks. The controversy has gained center attention through the writings of Joel Mowbray in The Wall Street Journal who has lashed out at high-ranking members of the network’s current leadership. He suggests that al-Hurra is so badly run that they’ve allowed active support for terrorism and a sympathetic view towards Arab autocrats to become an evident part of their news coverage. This...

Our policy towards Iran needs to be quite delicate. I’ve discussed the country’s fragile political situation before and I’ve mentioned that there is currently a major power struggle between more moderate elements of the government and hard-liners. We need to carefully take note of these political developments because they must factor into our decisions about how to engage with Tehran. Continued at Foreign Policy Watch.

…concludes that the practice is ineffective and often counterproductive. But is there an alternative?

The recent meeting between American and Iranian officials in Baghdad effectively brings to an end the Bush administration’s use of ‘enforced isolation’ as a strategy of its foreign policy. Although American officials have publicly emphasized that the talks were limited in scope and that our approach towards Iran has not changed, the reality is quite different. With Rice’s trip to Damascus recently and our current attempts at diplomacy with Tehran, there seems to be a growing...

How can we undermine Hamas and bolster Palestinian moderates? I discuss this question in a post at Foreign Policy Watch.

In Lebanon, there’s been an upsurge in fighting in the past few days. In Beirut, there have been several major bomb attacks and, in the northern part of the country (near Tripoli), the Lebanese army has been openly fighting Palestinian militants. Nearly all of this violence can, reportedly, be traced back to a group known as Fatah al-Islam, led by a Palestinian man named Shakir al-Abssi. Continued at Foreign Policy Watch.

Soap operas in Ukraine must have terrible ratings. That is to say, not even the wrangling between evil twins fighting for an heiress’s fortune could compete with the drama of the country’s deadlocked government. Via Foreign Policy Watch.