Turkey’s Foreign Policy Balancing Act

Western pundits spend a great deal of time trying to determine “who lost Turkey.” Ankara’s relations with the West are indeed tense, but there will be no severing of ties or withdrawal from NATO. Ankara is attempting a balancing act in which it diversifies its external ties to include Eurasia rather than remain anchored solely to the West.

The Clause That Could Scupper the Iran Nuclear Accord

A little-acknowledged provision of the 2015 international agreement that curbed Iran’s nuclear program explains jockeying by the US and the Islamic Republic over the modalities of a US return to the deal from which President Donald Trump withdrew.

Biden Is Targeting Longstanding Alliances with Israel and Saudi Arabia to Curry Favor with Iran

The Biden administration’s targeting of the US’s longstanding alliances with Israel and Saudi Arabia in order to placate Iran is not only immoral but disastrously counterproductive.

Biden’s CIA Director and Iran

Erfan Fard
March 14, 2021
Paper No. 1965

On February 24, 2021, William J. Burns was confirmed as Joe Biden’s new CIA director. The Iranian mullahs want to use terrorism to coerce Biden into lifting the crippling sanctions imposed by Donald Trump, and wish to continue their covert pursuit of nuclear weapons. Burns is an experienced professional and he is fully aware of the true nature of the Islamic regime.

Tunisian Jews Are in Immediate Danger

Dr. Edy Cohen
March 14, 2021
Paper No. 1964

The undisguised antisemitism of Tunisian president Kais Saied is encouraging Tunisian Muslims to express their own antisemitism more openly. Tunisia’s Jewish population is now the target of hostility and provocation from their own countrymen, a state of affairs for which the new president bears much responsibility.

The Israeli-Sri Lankan Relationship

Following Indian premier Narendra Singh Modi’s historic visit to Israel in 2017, bilateral relations between India and Israel were elevated into a strategic partnership. But this was not Israel’s first successful diplomatic venture in South Asia. India’s tiny neighbor, Sri Lanka, had a strategic alliance with Israel long before India developed one. During the Cold War era, Sri Lanka was viewed as an Israeli success story in the region.

The Netherlands: The EU’s “New Britain”?

Rauf Baker
March 12, 2021
Paper No. 1961

Amsterdam would like to claim the role once played by London within the EU, but there are challenges in its path—and not all parties see it as a suitable candidate in the first place.

Let the Jewish National Fund Recommit to Its Original Mission

The decision by the new chairman of the Jewish National Fund to continue the Fund’s mission to purchase land throughout the Land of Israel is worthy of praise. There is nothing new in its purchase of land in the West Bank as well, an endeavor that has gone on for more than a century.

Turkey Signals Sweeping Regional Ambitions

A nationalist Turkish television station with close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has dug up a 12-year-old map that projects Turkey’s sphere of influence in 2050 as stretching from southeastern Europe on the northern coast of the Mediterranean and Libya on its southern shore across North Africa, the Gulf, and the Levant into the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The Gara Affair: How Not to Rescue Hostages

Burak Bekdil
March 10, 2021
Paper No. 1958

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan needed a military success story, and the rescue of 13 hostages held by the PKK in northern Iraq would have fit the bill. Unfortunately, the operation was a tragic failure. Erdoğan now accuses the Kurds, Kurdish political parties, opposition parties, and even the Biden administration of responsibility for the disaster.

Perspectives Papers