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Will China Be the Middle East’s Next Hegemon?
Published On: April 21, 2021 09:04 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
TEL AVIV – US President Joe Biden has announced that he will withdraw American troops from Afghanistan by September 11, finally ending his country’s longest war ever. The move was indicative of a broader shift by the United States away from the Middle East – one that has been a long time coming. Will anyone take its place in the region?
Resolving the Iran conundrum
Published On: March 24, 2021 08:00 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken believes that Iran is only months away from being able to produce enough fissile material to build a nuclear weapon. Mitigating this threat and addressing Iran's broader destabilizing activities in the Middle East calls for a two-phase plan.
America is (sort of) back
Published On: February 21, 2021 08:47 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
The days of US hegemony are over, and America’s dysfunctional political system is incapable of countering China’s development strategy even by upgrading its own obsolete infrastructure.
The end of liberal diplomacy
Published On: January 26, 2021 08:00 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
For liberal diplomacy to be revived, a reinvigorated transatlantic alliance—with a far more cohesive EU acquiring the hard power it now lacks—is vitally important.
The Arab spring ten years later
Published On: December 21, 2020 07:52 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
As 2021 begins, the geopolitical terrain in the Arab world will continue to shift. The outcome will depend on whether or when the goal of democracy mobilizes Arab populations once again.
Joe Biden’s world order
Published On: November 25, 2020 07:55 PM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
A post-Trump order appears to be more about a return to the inter-bloc competition of 1945 than to post-Cold War liberal euphoria.
How Israel failed its Covid test
Published On: October 21, 2020 06:45 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
Israel is besieged not only by a deadly virus, but by identity politics, sectarian strife, and dishonest leadership. As the economic consequences of lockdown multiply, social and political tensions will only rise.
Democracies are better at managing crises
Published On: May 20, 2020 02:00 PM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
TEL AVIV – The COVID-19 crisis has become the latest front in the escalating clash of ideologies that has become a central feature of geopolitics in recent years. Representing authoritarianism is China, which has touted the success of its aggressive lockdown strategy in curbing the coronavirus’s spread. Representing democracy are a broad array of countries, some of which have responded far worse than others. So, which political system is better suited to managing crises?
Why this pandemic is different
Published On: April 19, 2020 01:39 PM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
TEL AVIV – Long before people and goods were traversing the globe non-stop, pandemics were already an inescapable feature of human civilization. And the tragedy they bring has tended to have a silver lining: perceived as mysterious, meta-historical events, large-scale disease outbreaks have often shattered old beliefs and approaches, heralding major shifts in the conduct of human affairs. But the COVID-19 pandemic may break this pattern.
Netanyahu Again?
Published On: March 11, 2020 09:01 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
TEL AVIV – Israel’s third electoral showdown in a year was not kind to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Even though his right-wing bloc of ultra-Orthodox and nationalist parties won more seats in parliament than the center-left bloc headed by former army chief Benny Gantz, he still lacks the parliamentary majority required to form a government. This result does not bode well for Israeli democracy.
Paradigm Shift on Palestine
Published On: February 20, 2020 09:32 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
TEL AVIV – Nobody should be surprised that US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace proposal is heavily tilted toward the Israelis. What is surprising is that, rather than rejecting Trump’s proposal, the world has left the Palestinians largely on their own.
What Does Suleimani’s Death Change?
Published On: January 6, 2020 08:10 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
TEL AVIV – We no longer live in an era in which wars are officially declared. The US drone strike that killed Qassem Suleimani, the charismatic commander of Iran’s Quds Force, is but one landmark event in a multiyear, multi-front war between the US and its allies and Iran and its many proxies.
Not Another Arab Spring
Published On: December 31, 2019 07:40 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
TEL AVIV : “A specter is haunting the rich world. It is the specter of ungovernability,” began an editorial in The Economist earlier this year, paraphrasing the opening line of the Communist Manifesto. But it is not only the West that is grappling with ungovernability. Across the Arab world, protesters have been making it clear that they will be ungovernable until their leaders deliver good governance.
Russia and Middle East
Published On: December 4, 2019 11:29 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
TEL AVIV – The collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago meant that its once-formidable presence in the Middle East collapsed as well. Today, however, as the United States has withdrawn from the region, Russia has rushed to recapture the Soviet Union’s position there, through a combination of military force, arms deals, strategic partnerships, and the deployment of soft power. But its success is being significantly overestimated.
Trump’s perfidious America
Published On: October 21, 2019 01:15 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
TEL AVIV – US President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw American troops from Syria, clearing the way for a Turkish offensive against the Kurds, is an unconscionable betrayal of a strategic ally.
The last days of Netanyahu?
Published On: September 25, 2019 12:51 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
TEL AVIV – At long last, Israel has taken a step back from the religious nationalist abyss into which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had been leading it. In the September 17 parliamentary election, the country’s second in five months, the “natural coalition” of Netanyahu’s Likud party, Orthodox groups, and proto-fascist factions failed to reach the 61-seat threshold that would have enabled him to form another government.
Forgetting Palestine
Published On: August 22, 2019 12:30 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
Never before in Israel’s history has it been able to develop a foreign policy so free of the Palestinian issue
No economic peace for Palestinians
Published On: July 23, 2019 12:30 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
Economic development would go a long way toward stabilizing Palestinian society
Don’t feed the Donald
Published On: June 24, 2019 12:30 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
No matter how hard Abe tries, the US and Japan remain divided on the same issues as always
Resilience of Arab world
Published On: May 21, 2019 01:00 AM NPT By: Shlomo Ben-Ami
Though militaries have often proved adept at staging coups, from Egypt to Thailand to Myanmar, they have been far less effective in securing transitions to civilian rule
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