The twin conflicts raging in Iraq and Syria have unleashed an unsettling dynamic that is transforming both the Middle East and the world beyond this deeply troubled region.It is clear that there is no end in sight to either of these conflicts and that the consequences of the cont

There are two Christmas stories. One is the romanticised antiseptic tale that has taken hold in our popular culture. It is the “Silent Night”/”Oh! Little Town of Bethlehem” version.Mary is smiling; Joseph is hovering protectively over mother and child.

Donald Trump and his GOP colleagues have exposed the depth of the divide in attitudes over the role of American Muslims in US society.The results of a recent Zogby poll establish that the divide is existential rather than rhetorical, and is more demographic than simply partisan.I

For the past five years, I have had the opportunity to conduct public opinion polls across the Middle East in order to provide content for policy discussions at the UAE’s annual Sir Bani Yas Forum.And so, during the month of September, we surveyed over 7,400 adults in six Ar

Just as there are so many unanswered questions about why Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, massacred 14 people at an office party in San Bernardino, California, there is so much that is tragically clear. In the first place, 14 innocent people are dead, 17 wounded and

The roots of our nation’s current descent into madness can be traced back to a series of unresolved catastrophic traumas Americans experienced during the Bush administration.In the short span of eight years, we suffered a collective loss of confidence in American leadership, in t

It has been frightening to listen to the intolerant and near hysterical tone of the debate over admitting Syrian refugees into America.Despite the fact that conflating refugees with terrorism is irrational and bigoted, this notion has spread quickly, with most of the Republican p

Everyone made nice when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington last week.It was make up time.

“When I entered the prime minister’s office for my second term, I was summoned to Washington. ‘Not one brick’, they told me… The pressure from the international community and the Americans was enormous...