Until the publication of reports that Bashar Assad’s army carried out a large attack using chemical weapons in an eastern suburb of Damascus, Washington had not seriously considered military intervention in Syria. In light of the conclusion by Western intelligence agencies that the Assad regime is responsible for using chemical weapons, the US government is considering a military response. A military response, however, does not stand alone; it obligates the United States to define its strategic purpose in using military force...
Tension between Russia and the United States has risen recently, following the cancellation of President Obama’s scheduled meeting with President Putin at the G20 summit in Russia in early September 2013. The immediate background to the tension is the Snowden affair, following Russia’s decision to grant political asylum to Edward Snowden. In fact, however, the two countries are challenging one another in a host of crisis situations on the bilateral, global, and regional levels. If this tension is not resolved, it can be...
While the United States and its Western allies have limited tools to influence events in Syria without military force, neither the United States nor Europe is interested in further military involvement in the region following the experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, the international system is incapable of taking substantive decisions on Syria due to the expected Russian and Chinese veto in the UN Security Council. One military option with a likelihood of broad international and regional backing is the creation of a...
US President Barack Obama recently appointed Susan Rice as national security adviser and nominated Samantha Power as the next US ambassador to the United Nations. Many viewed the Rice appointment as a response to Republican criticism of her role in the scandal over the Benghazi attack. Still, the two moves add a twist to the administration’s foreign policy, and the Middle East should take note: liberal interventionism may be back. If so, this may signal definite advantages for Israel.
The article presents a case study that outlines one possible scenario for future U.S.-Israeli decision making on Iran’s nuclear program. Given the spectrum of other available options, military force should only be employed against the program as a last resort. Yet the military option must still be credible, and ready to use if necessary. The authors discuss ten leading points that will be debated by the Israeli and U.S. leaders if they both agree that the time has come to ready their contingency options for a military strike...
Since he became US Secretary of State in February 2013, John Kerry has met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu four times. Only one other foreign dignitary has spent more time with Kerry – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Simple arithmetic does not reveal much about foreign policy priorities, but this fact does symbolize the importance that the Obama administration attaches to a new, improved version of the “reset” in Russian-American relations. That, in turn, has important implications for the outcome of the ongoing...
President Obama has affirmed unequivocally that his policy regarding Iran’s nuclear advances is a policy of prevention, not containment, and during his visit to Israel in March of this year he reiterated that the US will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Since prevention became official US policy, however, voices both in Israel and abroad have expressed doubts as to whether the President could be trusted on this count. This article examines the confusion about US policy on Iran that goes to Obama’s ability to...
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to make an official visit to China in early May 2013. This would be the first visit by an Israeli prime minister to China in over six years, and given the rarity of the meetings between the two heads of state and China’s increased influence internationally, the trip is important. This will be an opportunity for Israel to meet China’s new leaders, some of whom are expected to remain in their positions for the next ten years.
This article will not offer a legal analysis or presume to take sides in the ongoing debate between the administration and its critics on legal positions regarding military and security issues. The basic assumption of this series of speeches asserted that such a discussion is unavoidable and even essential in any democratic country. The problem is that when it heats up, particularly in wartime, the debate is liable to frame the tension between security and values as an inevitable choice between them. Obama identified this...
On March 1, 2013, after the failure by Congress to act on the 2013 budget, the President issued a sequestration order of $85 billion for the remainder of the 2013 fiscal year. The order specifies the various programs in which cuts are to be made, amounting to $42.667 billion in defense spending and an equal figure in non-defense departments. The dilemma for Israel and the pro-Israel lobby is whether it should use the support it enjoys in the US Congress in order to exempt the assistance for Israel, and especially the financial...
A series of high level meetings in recent weeks perhaps bespeaks an intention by Russia and the United States to achieve understandings concerning the future of the Syrian regime. While there is no certainty that the parties have already reached final understandings, it appears that the rhetorical tones and the actions on the ground (such as the new decisions by the United States concerning controlled aid to the Syrian opposition, possibly in coordination with Russia) reflect changes in their approach. If Russia and the United States...
Against the background of the international drive to negotiate a deal between Iran and the United States and/or the P5+1 over Iran’s nuclear program, this article outlines a possible agreement based on the components considered critical to both sides. A viable agreement would include elements essential to each side, as well as elements that guarantee critical interests of the other side. From Israel’s perspective, such an agreement is not good news, because it does not, once and for all, put an end to the Iranian military nuclear...
