Martin Indyk
Essay
May/June
2012
The Obama administration’s foreign policy has tried to reconcile the president’s lofty vision with his innate realism and political caution. And given the domestic and global situations Obama has faced, pragmatism has dominated. Judged by the standard of protecting U.S. interests, things have worked out quite well; judged by the standard of midwifing a new global order, they remain a work in progress.
Capsule Review
Nov/Dec
2009
Which Path to Persia? presents four possible approaches for U.S. policy toward Iran: a diplomatic solution, a military response, regime change, and containment. Diplomacy breaks down into two options, persuasion or engagement.
Video
Foreign Affairs authors analyze policy options to bring peace to the Middle East and the role that the Obama administration can play in the region.
Capsule Review
Mar/Apr
2009
The Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations have teamed up to propose a Middle East policy for the new administration, including suggested U.S. approaches to Iraq, Iran, nuclear proliferation, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Middle East economic and political development, and counterterrorism.
Essay
Jan/Feb
2009
To be successful in the Middle East, the Obama administration will need to move beyond Iraq, find ways to deal constructively with Iran, and forge a final-status Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
Review Essay
Jan/Feb
2009
To avoid some of the mistakes from past Israeli-Palestinian peace processes, the Obama administration should consult Martin Indyk’s insider account.
Postscript
Martin Indyk's update to his May/June 2003 essay "A Trusteeship for Palestine?"
Essay
May/Jun
2003
The Bush administration's plan for Middle East peace is a road map to nowhere. A more ambitious approach will be necessary to parlay the bounce from a successful Iraq war into serious Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. The time has come to consider the notion of a trusteeship for Palestine.
Essay
Jan/Feb
2002
The United States has an opportunity to set new terms for its alliances in the Middle East. The bargain struck with Egypt and Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War seemed successful for a decade, but now the United States is facing the consequences: Washington backed Cairo's and Riyadh's authoritarian regimes, and they begat al Qaeda. The Bush administration should heed the lesson.
Essay
Special
1991
Overview of events in the Middle East during 1991, and how the Gulf war outcome, along with the collapse of the USSR, affected the interests of countries in the region. Asserts that US foreign policy could have been more vigorous in restructuring the Middle East order: "it sought more to stabilize the old order than to remake the Middle East in its own preferred image".
