The United States should consider taking China up on its four-point peace plan for Syria.
The U.S. and the Middle East: The Next Four Years
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Palestine
A New Middle East Agenda for Obama
In his first term, President Barack Obama’s vision for the Middle East failed to materialize. If he wants to make a lasting mark during his second term, he must ensure that U.S. policy in the region is no longer dictated by energy sources, friendly dictators, and Israel.
McGovern’s Progressive Leadership on Middle East Policy
He felt that, as a friend to Israel, he was obliged to tell them to discontinue engaging in acts that were both immoral and threatened its own self-interest.
Six Global Issues The Foreign Policy Debates Won’t Touch
In the interest of keeping vital global issues in the discussion, Foreign Policy in Focus reached out to scholars at the Institute for Policy Studies—our institutional home—to sketch out progressive perspectives on the world issues we don’t expect to get fair treatment in the debates between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Without an informed citizenry, these crucial topics will always fall by the wayside. So read up, and share widely!
Romney on the Middle East: Obama, but Worse
Mitt Romney’s foreign policy speech at the Virginia Military Institute, while trotted out as a major rejection of the current administration’s approach to the Middle East, mostly just rehashed President Obama’s policies, albeit with more hawkish bravado. But Romney’s speech also included a host of faulty assumptions about Arabs and Muslims, indicating a potentially reckless misunderstanding of America’s relationship with the Muslim world.
Romney and Ryan: Stabbing at Shadows
In an election season consumed by the sluggish U.S. economy, foreign policy has been a more marginal issue than usual in the U.S. presidential race. But when they have ventured to attack President Barack Obama’s record on global affairs, GOP nominee Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan have avoided substantive issues in favor of tired talking points and dog whistles, chalking up a series of gaffes and exposing their own inexperience in the process.
Khaled Meshal and Hamas Go Their Separate Ways
In order to respond to overwhelming Israeli power, Palestinians need political managers skilled in statecraft, not charismatic leaders who inevitably become corrupt autocrats.
African Migrants and the Israeli Apartheid Debate
The name of the neighborhood could not have been more symbolic. Located in southern Tel Aviv, the impoverished Hatikva quarter has always born the stigma of sharing a name with Israel’s national anthem, while playing home to some of the poorest, most marginalized Jews in the country—as well as a growing population of African asylum seekers, mostly from Eritrea and South Sudan.
Divesting from All Occupations
The Palestinian solidarity struggle would be considerably strengthened if, instead of calling for divestment specifically from companies supporting the Israeli occupation, the call was for divestment from companies supporting all foreign belligerent occupations.
Morals in the Age of One Superpower
Interjecting the consideration of moral values into foreign policy decisions is, unfortunately, often ridiculed by the political establishment of Republicans and Democrats in the United States. For instance, one supporter of Bill Clinton in 1992, Michael Mandelbaum, expressed how foolish it is to construct policies based on moral values.