Senior American officials held confidential talks with Iran about Iraq’s future in advance of the United States-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, and secured a promise that the Iranian military would not fire at United States warplanes that strayed into Iranian airspace, according to a new book by a ranking Bush administration official, The New York Times reports. But the […]
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One of the most intriguing individuals to play a leading role in the Bush-era wars is Zalmay Khalilzad, a polished diplomat who was the most senior Muslim in the White House at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and who has now published his own memoir, The Envoy, the FT’s Geoff Dyer writes: Born in northern […]
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Criticizing U.S. missteps in promoting democracy is certainly reasonable—particularly in light of the debacles in Iraq and Libya—but elevating these criticisms into high doctrine and principled critiques of democracy promotion more generally misses the point, argues Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2007 to 2009. It is not the strategic rationale […]
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Iraq is decidedly not lost to Iran—and today U.S. leverage is at a new post-withdrawal high, says Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations. Many Iraqi Shiite leaders are growing disillusioned with Iran and want to strengthen ties with the U.S., he writes for The Wall Street Journal: First, […]
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Under the right conditions, which must include a hard-headed approach and tough actions to check Iran’s ambitions, Washington can benefit from bringing Iran into multilateral forums where the United States and its partners have the opportunity to narrow differences, create rules of the road and solve problems, argues Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to […]
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…. Raymond Tanter, Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, asks in The National Interest: First, regarding theory: recognize bureaucratic principles, as modified by recent research, which is quite critical of these principles. Second, with respect to history, reconcile realism without illusion to idealism, aimed at preservation of freedom, as the central task of statecraft. […]
The post What are Khalilzad memoir’s lessons for U.S. policy? appeared first on Democracy Digest.
Iraq is facing a looming economic crisis, with a displaced population of 3.3m people, according to the UN, and renewed sectarian bloodshed which could fuel the very resentments that helped Isis seize control of Sunni majority areas. Such problems could turn military victories into practical defeats, The Financial Times reports: The US-led coalition and Iraqi government […]
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The decision by Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to have his supporters seize and then vacate parliament in Baghdad appeared to be the act of a man who—at least for now—wants to control rather than destroy the country’s political system, The Wall Street Journal reports: But the breach is putting intense strain on the fragile democracy established in Iraq after […]
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The drone strike that killed Taliban leader Mullah Mansour confirms that the U.S. will chase and hunt down terrorists who seek refuge in Pakistan, says Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S Ambassador to Afghanistan. “This taking out of Mullah Mansour in Pakistan is a good step to deal with Pakistan’s two faced policies,” he said. “What […]
The post Countering violent extremism in Pakistan appeared first on Democracy Digest.
A former top American diplomat has said the United States should adopt a policy of total isolation against Pakistan, harshly criticizing the country for supporting the Afghan militant groups: In an interview with the Times of India, Zalmay Khalilzad said the step by US should be taken to send a signal that it faces the […]
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Leading officials in Saudi Arabia now concede that support for extremism turned on them, metastasizing into a serious threat to the Kingdom and to the West, says Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations, and the author of “The Envoy: From Kabul to the White House, My Journey Through a […]
The post A Saudi ‘revolution under cover of modernization’ appeared first on Democracy Digest.
The root causes of Iraq’s civil war involve the sectarian policies of previous Iraqi governments and the failure of the Iraqi political system to establish power-sharing arrangements, argues Zalmay Khalilzad, the former US Ambassador in Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN. If Iraq does not address these underlying issues then some successor of ISIS will reemerge […]
The post Decisive factors that will shape post-conflict Mosul appeared first on Democracy Digest.
A dispute between Iraq and Turkey has emerged as a dramatic geopolitical sideshow to the complicated military campaign to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State, with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan trying to ramp up an involvement in Iraq that has already alarmed the Iraqi government, The New York Times reports: Zalmay […]
The post After Mosul: state-building means democratic state-building appeared first on Democracy Digest.
While defeating Islamic State in northern Iraq. would remove a formidable threat, religious minorities and other civilians remain at risk and could face further atrocities, according to a new report from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. Long-standing territorial disputes, sectarian tensions existing prior to the Islamic State, […]
The post Protect civilians in fight against Islamic State, report cautions appeared first on Democracy Digest.
With the Iranians and the Russians fully backing Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, it’s clear that the chances of regime change anytime soon are zero. Assuming that Raqqa will be liberated in the early days of the next administration, what happens next? asks Henri J. Barkey, the director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow […]
The post A post-ISIS recovery plan for Syria? appeared first on Democracy Digest.
What the Mosul operation should be making obvious is that whoever gets to the gaps in governance and civil society first and best will win the epic struggles of identity now taking place in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa, argues Col. (ret.) Christopher Holshek, Senior Civil-Military Adviser to Narrative Strategies, the International Peace […]
The post Mosul highlights ‘post-conflict bipolar disorder’ appeared first on Democracy Digest.
An array of Iraqi forces, backed by a broad international coalition, is closing in on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, united in their determination to crush the jihadists but driven by starkly opposed agendas, Reuters reports: While the shared goal of destroying Islamic State in Iraq should hold this unlikely coalition together until the […]
The post Reclaiming Mosul: concerns about politics the ‘day after’ appeared first on Democracy Digest.
The increasing threat of terrorism has not just influenced American perceptions of the liberal international order. It has had an impact in European democracies as well, contributing to Brexit and the increased support for far right nationalist parties, writes Jamie Fly, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “We have yet to develop an […]
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Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary met China’s special envoy on Afghan affairs on Monday, a foreign office spokesman said, a day after Islamabad canceled a scheduled visit by a top U.S. official, Reuters reports: The decision by Pakistan to postpone the visit of Alice Wells, acting assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, came […]
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This week’s United Nations General Assembly is a crucial opportunity to reassure the world that U.S. foreign policy is based primarily on the soft power of diplomacy rather than military might, says Zalmay Khalilzad (left), who served as Washington’s U.N. ambassador under former President George W. Bush. “The world is concerned that our current president may […]
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