Gulf Security: The Arab Gulf States Have No Good Options

The coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout may rewrite the security as well as the political and economic map of the Middle East. The crisis will probably color Gulf attitudes towards the region’s major external players: the US, China, and Russia. Yet the Gulf States are likely to discover that their ability to shape the region’s map has significantly diminished.

Georgia’s Relations with Israel and the US

In 1992, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, both the US and Israel established diplomatic relations with Georgia, which had been freed from the grip of the Soviet bloc and was setting out as an independent state. Between then and now, relations between the states have tightened in all areas: diplomacy, security, and trade.

Opinion Polling During the Coronavirus Crisis

Opinion polls from all over the world show that most of the public is satisfied with how its leaders have handled the medical aspects of the coronavirus crisis, including the use of location and tracking methods at the price of infringing on privacy. This contrasts to widespread dissatisfaction over the handling of the economic aspects of the crisis and greater concern over its economic than its health implications.

Michel Foucault and Iran’s Ayatollahs

The Islamic Revolution in Iran, which brought Islamists to power for the first time in modern history, pitted the global left—perhaps best personified by Michel Foucault—against the global right. To this day, the global left’s advocacy for Islamism continues to guide the West’s general approach toward the Middle East.

Coronavirus and the Middle East

The coronavirus crisis has exposed Arab and Islamic notions of fraternity, mutual commitment, and solidarity as hollow rhetorical slogans. Each country in the region is focused entirely on its own efforts to survive economically, socially, and politically as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc.

Mobile Nuclear Microreactor Development: A Military-Civilian Symbiosis

The US Department of Defense has been working with American companies for the past year on a project to develop a prototype for a portable nuclear microreactor, a device intended for use by the US military in security scenarios around the world. The US Department of Energy is also involved in the project, with the aim of providing electricity to remote sites that are difficult to link to the grid. The project thus represents a symbiosis between military and civilian technological development.

European Jewish Communities and the Coronavirus Crisis

The coronavirus crisis has shaken many European Jewish communities to the core. As the EU member states try to return to normal in the aftermath of the most severe threat to the lives of their citizens since WWII, the continent’s Jewish communities struggle to come to terms with the devastating events of the past months.

Gantz’s Challenges and Agenda as Israel’s New Defense Minister

Yaakov Lappin
May 26, 2020
Paper No. 1582

Former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz officially took up his position as defense minister a week ago. His first challenges will be to wage a bitter struggle for a defense budget and promote a cautious approach to Donald Trump’s peace plan.

Israel’s Frustrating Experience in South Lebanon

Twenty years after Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon, it is worth considering basic questions about its experience over years of warfare in a campaign that did not aim for victory. Those questions include what was going on, what Israel was fighting for, and what ultimately impelled it to withdraw. Such considerations have immediate significance in terms of clarifying the tenets of Israel’s security concept.

The US-Israeli Campaign Against the ICC

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently issued a stern warning to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague to stop the chief prosecutor from proceeding with an intended investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by Israel. Pompeo’s warning concerned Israel, but as the US is itself in danger of an ICC investigation into supposed war crimes in Afghanistan, it was meant to send a broader message. Any ICC investigation of Israel and the US would be dangerous, and the allies must use all diplomatic and legal tools at their disposal to fight and delegitimize the prosecutor and the Court.

Perspectives Papers