Brookings Press Blog

SHOOTING UP Author Discusses Afghanistan on PRI’s “To the Point”

Vanda Felbab-Brown recently warned about the risks associated with reaching out to the Taliban in a conversation with “To the Point” host Warren Olney. "There is real danger for the [Obama] administration to signal that they do not believe the military offensive, the multi-faceted surge will make a difference," said Felbab-Brown. "And thereby engaging in strategic negotiations with the Taliban leadership that was responsible for the al Qaeda safe-haven, that will be associated with 9-11, really leaves the administration vulnerable to charges of being soft on protecting US homeland." 

Other participants in the program include Lieutenant General Nick Parker, deputy commander under General Stanley McChrystal for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan; ISAF special adviser Sarah Chayes; and Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid.

- Hear the discussion on “To the Point.”

- Read Felbab-Brown's reaction to the State of the Union.

- Learn more about Shooting Up.

Grading the President’s Afghanistan Policy: Vanda Felbab-Brown Gives the Administration a B

As part of The Status Report, a daily series of commentary with video from Brookings scholars to be featured in POLITICO's The Arena, Vanda Felbab-Brown gives President Obama a B for laying out the right strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan but taking too much time to decide on a plan. Felbab-Brown, an expert on counterinsurgency and the author of Shooting Up, writes, “Unfortunately 2009 turned out to be a year of lost opportunities in Afghanistan during which momentum continued to be lost to the insurgency, corruption, and apathy.” The amount of time required for the fall policy review, she argues, “further weakened the already fragile confidence in the United States, abroad and among the Afghan population. With respect to the objective of improving governance and thus harnessing the aspirations of Afghan people, expectations were also dashed. The international community was unprepared for the widespread corruption that plagued the Afghan presidential elections and the background dealing among Afghan powerbrokers that characterized months of the presidential campaign. And the subsequent bashing of President-Elect Hamid Karzai in the international community for corruption did little to establish the needed foundation for improved governance in Afghanistan.”

- Read more of Felbab-Brown’s analysis.

- See her December 2008 memo to the president on policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

- Learn more about Shooting Up.

Bruce Riedel (THE SEARCH FOR AL QAEDA) on defeating al Qaeda in Yemen

In The Daily Beast, Bruce Riedel, author of The Search for al Qaeda, looks at the challenges facing the Obama administration as it tries to defeat al Qaeda in Yemen after the failed Christmas Day attack on the Amsterdam–Detroit flight.

The mission will be exceedingly difficult to accomplish, as Yemen has always been one of the world’s least-governed spaces, is deeply divided on complex and confusing sectarian and regional grounds, is armed to the teeth, and has a ruling government that is a weak partner in the fight. To make matters worse, several decades of bad U.S.-Yemeni relations have soured most Yemenis on America and made many sympathetic to al Qaeda.

Although the United States can provide military and economic assistance, Riedel writes that dealing with al Qaeda operatives in the country will depend upon assistance from the Yemeni government.

In a post on Up Front, the blog of the Brookings Institution, Riedel offers an overview of how al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has grown to become a player in the global Islamic jihad in the last year.

Al Qaeda has always found weak and failing states like Yemen to be its best staging bases and sanctuaries. Along with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia, Yemen offers an ideal location to operate with little outside interference. The president has been right to focus additional resources on combating AQAP, but the battle has just begun. If the Yemeni state becomes further destabilized, bin Laden’s cadre in the Arabian Peninsula will have more room to operate.

- Read the full article on The Daily Beast.

- Read the full post on Up Front.

- Learn more about The Search for al Qaeda.

Vanda Felbab-Brown Blogs on the Karzai Brothers for The New York Times

Brookings fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown, author of the forthcoming Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs, joins Robert D. Kaplan (Center for a New American Security), Frederick W. Kagan (American Enterprise Institute), Stephen Biddle (Council on Foreign Relations), and Andrew J. Bacevich (Boston University) on the New York Times blog, Room for Debate, to discuss the Karzai brothers and the challenges they create for U.S. policy in Afghanistan. Numerous reports have linked Ahmed Wali Karzai, the leading power broker in Kandahar and brother of President Hamid Karzai, to drug trafficking. But as Felbab-Brown points out, the Karzais are only the tip of the iceberg: “Indeed, many power brokers in Afghanistan—including some of today’s staunchest eradicators of the poppy crop and members of the Ministry of Interior’s counternarcotics section—have been involved in the drug trade. Because opium constitutes between a third and a half of the country’s gross domestic product (and has been for 20 years), it is deeply embedded in the society’s socio-economic fabric, political arrangements and power relations.”

- Follow the discussion at Room for Debate.

- Learn more about Shooting Up.

Will Pakistan cave in?

Bruce Riedel investigates the historical and current frameworks of the jihadist movement in Pakistan

National Interest editor, Justine Rosenthal, interviews Bruce Riedel

Who knows what the future may hold? As Pakistan breeds instability within many socio-political dimensions, a jihadist takeover of the nation might sprout the most fatal threat to security in the Middle East and for the United States. Bruce Riedel examines the possibility of the invasion of the Taliban, al Qaeda, and other terrorist factions in one of the Middle East’s most vulnerable states. In a National Interest article, Riedel traces the history of the Pakistani dilemma and links it to current developments.

Will Pakistan be the beginning of the end of terrorism in the Middle East? In his insightful analysis, Riedel says, “Pakistan is a complex and combustible society undergoing a severe crisis. America helped create that crisis over a long period of time. If we don’t help Pakistan now, we may have to deal with a jihadist Pakistan later. That should focus our attention.”

- Learn more about Riedel's latest book book, The Search for al Qaeda

- Read “Armageddon in Islamabad” by Bruce Riedel in National Interest

- Watch National Interest editor, Justine Rosenthal, interview Riedel

What do you know about Al-Qaeda?

Bruce Riedel’s Search for al-Qaeda receives critical acclaim

In The Search for al Qaeda: Its Leadership, Ideology, and Future, Middle East expert and former CIA officer Bruce Riedel argues that the past Administration was mistaken to declare a “war on terror” rather than a war against al Qaeda. In the book, he reviews how al Qaeda was created and developed, presenting authoritative and chilling background on "The Manhattan Raid," and focuses closely on what has happened to the movement since 9/11. He outlines al Qaeda’s ultimate goals and with a comprehensive analysis, reveals the origins, leadership, ideology, and strategy of the terrorist network. The book ends with innovative recommendations on how this movement can be stopped.

Critics maintain that The Search for al Qaeda “promotes, and provokes, fresh thinking and polemics.” Even in that sense alone, it is a valuable contribution to the public debate. Amir Taheri of AlSharq AlAwsat adds, “With the Obama administration apparently adopting Riedel’s analysis, we should soon know whether these recommendations would produce the desired effects.”

If the first rule of war is to "know your enemy," then we have a long way to go in winning this war against terror. As Riedel advises, it begins with the search for al Qaeda.

Bruce Riedel was a senior advisor to three U.S. presidents on Middle East and South Asian issues. He is currently a senior fellow with Brookings' Saban Center for Middle East Policy. At the request of President Obama, he chaired an interagency review of policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan for the White House that was completed in March 2009.

- Begin your Search for Al-Qaeda

- Read reviews of The Search for al Qaeda by Amir Taheri of AlSharq AlAwsat and by Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times

Now that the June 12 elections are over, how does the U.S. undertake relations with Iran?

Brookings author Suzanne Maloney reveals the key to U.S. strategy toward Iran

Global news headlines read “Iran vote Illegitimate,” “Sanctions on Iran” and “G8 'deplores' Iran poll violence” as the world grapples for better options to address the issues rising in the country. In a conference by United States Institute of Peace, Suzanne Maloney, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the book Which Path to Persia?, uncovers solutions that address the right path to resolve the issues in Iran. In the conference titled "Iran's Presidential Elections: Implications for US-Iranian Engagement." Maloney offers her ideas on how the U.S can aid Iranian democracy and development.

Maloney studies Iran, the political economy of the Persian Gulf and Middle East energy policy. A former U.S. State Department policy advisor, she has also counseled private companies on Middle East issues. Maloney has also published books on Iran and its role in the Middle East.

While the title of Which Path to Persia? asks the all-important question, its content tackles the issues and provides options for a new American strategy toward Iran. In the book, Maloney teams up with Ken Pollack, former Director for Persian Gulf affairs at the National Security Council; Dan Byman, Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Peace and Security Studies; Martin Indyk, acting vice president and director of Foreign Policy at Brookings; Michael O’Hanlon, senior author of the Iraq Index; and Bruce Riedel, senior advisor to three U.S. presidents on Middle East issues. Together, this team of experienced scholars offers the most important policy solutions available to the United States with regard to Iran and the Middle East.

- Learn more about Which Path to Persia?

- Read full details of the conference from an article by the National Iranian American Council

Brookings authors Benjamin Wittes and Martin Indyk in the news

Experts from the Brookings Institution give their opinion and get quizzed on global and national events

With the recent departure of American troops form Iraq, the topical Iranian elections and uprisings, and the ongoing Israel-Palestine state struggle, Brookings intellectuals Benjamin Wittes and Martin Indyk analyze Obama’s approach to addressing terrorism and the recent happenings in Iran, Iraq, Israel as well as the crises in the Middle East respectively.

In a Washington Post op-ed writted with Jack Goldsmith, Benjamin Wittes examines past presidencies and suggests the model the Obama administration can take to address new ground rules for a war on terror. His assessment: “Roosevelt's approach, not Bush-era unilateralism, should be President Obama's model.” In his forthcoming book, Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform, Wittes addresses the legal issues surrounding the struggle against terrorism.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Martin Indyk, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, expounds on America’s role in Middle East affairs. With years of international experience as ambassador to Israel (April 1995-September 1997 and January 2000-July 2001) and recent books—Which Path to Persia? and Restoring the Balance—under his belt, Indyk offers his expertise on how President Obama can tackle the issues in the region stating, “Obama is determined. He understands that he has to be persistent, and that will require everybody else to change their calculations.”

Martin Indyk is acting vice president and director of Foreign Policy at The Brookings Institution, and Benjamin Wittes is currently a senior fellow of Governance Studies at Brookings and the contributing editor of The Atlantic.

- Learn more about the changing circulations in the Middle East from Indyk's books, Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran and Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President

- Read the Indyk's full interview with Ruthie Blum Leibowitz of The Jerusalem Post

- Learn more about America’s struggle against terrorism from the book Legislating the War on Terror

- Read Wittes and Goldsmith's Washington Post op-ed, "Will Obama Follow Bush Or FDR?"

Outrage in Iran: "Which Path to Persia?"

Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran

What do we do about Iran? Over the past thirty years, Washington has produced an unimpressive track record for policies - ranging from undeclared warfare to unilateral concessions - that have largely failed to convince Tehran to drop its support for terrorist groups, the pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, or its wider efforts to overturn the regional status quo. Now the world watches as protests continue to heat up over the apparently rigged elections that have given hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an overwhelming victory over reformist Mir Hossein Moussavi.

Available in July, Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran, objectively presents the most important policy options available to the United States in crafting a new strategy toward Iran, including: diplomacy, military, regime change, and containment. The distinguished group of authors, all senior fellows with the Saban Center at Brookings, points out that no one strategy is ideal and that all involve heavy costs, significant risks, and potentially painful tradeoffs.

- Learn more about Which Path to Persia?

Brookings Authors on Gaza, Iraq, and Pakistan

Experts offer commentary on foreign affairs

In addition to penning timely and important books, Brookings Press authors often provide expert analysis of current policy decisions and discussions. Here are three recent articles.

Tamara Cofman Wittes, author of Freedom’s Unsteady March, writes on YaleGlobal that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue must combine the aspirations of Arab citizens with regional interest.

Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, who recently authored a chapter on Iraq in Restoring the Balance, discuss President Obama’s decision to withdraw American troops from that country in the New York Times.

Akbar Ahmed, author of Journey into Islam, explains why he believes that Obama must save Pakistan on The Huffington Post.

- Learn more about Freedom's Unsteady March

- Learn more about Restoring the Balance

- Learn more about Journey into Islam