|
|
Iran
| The new Middle East – new day rising? |
|
David Martin Abrahams
March 14, 2011
Generally speaking, the modern regimes in the Arab Middle East are typified by one of two models of the authoritarian state. The first type is the secular dictatorship whose power bases are its army (mainly its higher ranks) and its powerful security agencies. Such are, for example, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia.
|
| |
| Syria's international rehabilitation depends on its courtship by Saudi |
|
By David Martin Abrahams
Nov 30, 2010
In the middle of the last decade the Syrian regime seemed utterly isolated and on the way to regional impotence. Having been named and shamed as a rogue state by future US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton in his speech 'Beyond the Axis of Evil' in 2002, relations with the US collapsed further three years later. Amidst the fallout surrounding the assassination of Rafik
Hariri in Beirut the US pulled its ambassador from Damascus. It was a dramatic fall from grace. Only a dozen years earlier Syria had begun to enjoy profitable and productive relations with the West after the regime had taken part in the multinational coalition assembled to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
|
| |
| The Urgency of Restoring the Israel-Turkey Relationship |
|
Israel-Turkey relations have steadily deteriorated since the 2009 war in Gaza and have remained at an impasse since the flotilla incident. If Turkey wants to be a global player, both economically and diplomatically, it must become Israel's ally once again.
By David Martin Abrahams, Vice President, RUSI
Dec 3, 2010
|
| |
| The Kissingerian Logic |
|
By David Martin Abrahams
July 16, 2010
Advocates of negotiations between Israel and Syria often employ Kissingerian logic that this will lead to isolating Iran. This is based on the assumption that Syria is independent to pursue its own foreign policy and has sufficient political power to change its orbit from Iran to the West. Right wing critics mistakenly interpret the interplay between Syria, Hezbollah and Iran as a symptom of the weakness of the Assad regime. This commentary is based on the “Evil Axis” paradigm and by that it ignores the flexibility of secular authoritarian regimes (such as Egypt, Jordan, China) over time. The Syrian political elite, like some of its Arab rivals, is not bound to a rigid religious or ideological stance, therefore it can – and eventually will – change its policies in the regional and international arenas.
|
| |
|