CIAO DATE: 12/2011
Volume: 0, Issue: 21
September 2011
Tom Neumann
Editor's Note
Ilan Berman
Ten years ago this Fall, al-Qaeda carried out the most devastating attacks on the U.S. homeland in our country’s history. That brazen attack propelled the United States—and the world—into a qualitatively new kind of global conflict. Ten years on, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks provides the opportunity to reflect upon where we are in this effort. To do so, The Journal convened a symposium of seventeen of the country’s premier counterterrorism specialists. These experts—drawn from Congress, the U.S. military and the Beltway policy community—have shared their unique insights into how far we have come in the past decade in our struggle against terrorism, and how far the United States and its allies still need to go. From there, we turn to the other pressing topic of the day: the so-called “Arab Spring.” The past half-year has seen unprecedented change sweep over the Middle East and North Africa. Long-standing regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya have fallen. Others (such as Syria) continue to struggle against widespread domestic discontent. Still others—Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and beyond—have felt their fair share of grassroots ferment. What does this geopolitical earthquake augur for the Middle East? What should America’s role be in these changes? And how will the region change in the months ahead? We start to answer some of those questions with six cutting-edge articles. Barry Rubin, one of Israel’s leading commentators on Mideast affairs, outlines in damning detail the misconceptions that animate the Obama administration’s approach to the region—and explains how these flawed ideas have wreaked havoc on America’s stature there. Indiana University’s Jamsheed Choksy provides a tantalizing glimpse into the high-stakes political conflict now taking place between Iran’s firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the country’s entrenched clerical elite. Brent Talbot of the U.S. Air Force Academy then examines Israel’s strategic options for dealing with Iran’s persistent nuclear program, and argues that the Israeli government is likely to take decisive action in the not-too-distant future. The Henry Jackson Society’s Julia Pettengill and Houriya Ahmed sketch the motivations behind—and implications of—the attempted “unity” deal between the Hamas movement and the Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Robert Freedman of Baltimore Hebrew University and Johns Hopkins University outlines how the Russian government of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin has attempted to weather the changes taking place in the region so far. And Daniel Jackman and Daniel Wagner, two geopolitical risk experts with the consulting firm Country Risk Solutions, provide a masterful tour d’horizon of the economic and social ferment that has accompanied the region’s revolutions. Also in this issue, we’re delighted to have as our “Perspective” interviewee former Treasury Under Secretary Stuart Levey—who, as the U.S. government’s long-standing point man on sanctions against Iran and al-Qaeda, spearheaded the “financial front” of the War on Terror for much of that conflict. We also have Dispatches from Russia, Belarus and Jordan, as well as book reviews covering U.S. and Israeli counterterrorism efforts, Pakistan’s duplicitous relationship with radical Islam, and the high cost of terrorism on Israel and the Jews. Over the years, our readers have come to rely on The Journal as a leading source of cutting-edge analysis of the trends, developments and policies that shape our world. The contents of this issue are but the latest proof we live up to that promise.
Ed Royce
A Changing Enemy, and Battles Still to Be Fought
The Hon. Patrick Meehan
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
Matthew Levitt
Denying Safe Haven in Afghanistan
Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell, IV
Brent J. Talbot
The Road So Far
John Hannah
Understanding the Enemy
Mary Habeck
Back to the Future?
James Jay Carafano
Are We Winning the War on Terror Finance?
Avi Jorisch, John Cassara
Same Song, Second Verse
Barak Mendelsohn
Winning the War, Losing the Peace
Lt. Gen William Boykin
Adapting to al-Qaeda's War of Attrition
Brian Fishman
Calling a Spade a Spade
Walid Phares
Assessing Our Counterterrorism Investment
Celina B. Realuyo
Ceding the Battlefield
James S. Robbins
The Imperative of Exporting Security
Derek S. Reveron
Change Agent
How Obama’s Middle East Policy has made things much, much worse
Ahmadinejad's Crusade
Jamsheed K. Choksy
Iran’s president takes on the ayatollahs, with the Islamic Republic in the balance
Imperfect Union
Julia Pettengill, Houriya Ahmed
The twisted logic of the Hamas-Fatah unity deal
The Arabs' Perpetual Spring
Daniel Wagner, Daniel Jackman
The bumpy post-revolutionary road ahead
The Arab Spring's Challenge to Moscow
Robert O. Freedman
Russia struggles to maintain its geopolitical position amid regional unrest
Sanctions and U.S. Strategy
An Interview with The Honorable Stuart Levey
MOSCOW: One-Man Show
Miriam Elder
MINSK: Slow Boil
James Kirchick
AMMAN: The Hashemite Advantage
Majdi Saleem Kohof
Counterterrorism's Cost
Aaron Mannes
Daniel Byman maps out Israel’s own War on Terror
Risky Business
Jeff M. Smith
Syed Shahzad exposes Pakistan’s ISI—and pays the ultimate price
Imperfect Chronicle
Amy K. Rosenthal
A flawed history of terror’s Israeli and Jewish victims, courtesy of Giulio Meotti
The Crusade Against Counterterrorism
Travis Sharp, Matthew Irvine
Dana Priest and William Arkin’s misguided quest to stop “secret America”