The arrests last week in Turkey of 51 past and present military chiefs must be understood in the context of the divide between the ruling (moderately Islamist) Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the traditionally politically powerful and staunchly secular military establishment.
I took this pic on my increasingly useful iPhone on Amelia Island, outside of Jacksonville, Florida. I’m here with a very interesting bunch of folks discussing a framework for policy alternatives and different narratives that could be useful in changing the course of America’s Afghanistan policy. More later.
Brookings Institution Turkey Project Director Ömer Taspinar offers his thoughts on the recent wave of arrests of former and current military officials in Turkey. Taspinar is among the most astute and objective analysts of Turkish politics in Washington and this quick snippet captures the essence of the political events unfolding there
This is a guest “note” from Gail Reed, an American journalist based in Havana. Her comments are from an email, published at The Washington Note with her permission, commenting on the recent U.S.
Greetings folks. I’m departing Doha in a few hours after having spent an interestin day at the Sheraton here watching the Sudan/Darfur peace agreement signing ceremony — as well as participating in a significant conference titled “Political Islam: Options and Priorities” sponsored by the Al Jazeera Center for Studies.
This is a guest note by Stephen M. Walt. The essay, which TWN encouraged Walt to publish after outlines of it appeared in private correspondence, first appeared on Walt’s Foreign Policy blog. Walt is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
(Photo at: http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entries/reaching_out_cuban_people/) Anya Landau French directs the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative. This post was originally published at The Havana Note. Last week in Havana, U.S.
This morning in the Washington Post, Dana Milbank challenges Edward Luce, Leslie Gelb, Jane Hamsher and me on our recent pieces explicating the management and policymaking mess among Barack Obama’s core team. (Here is my piece.) Let’s set aside for another post the fact that Milbank’s column seems to channel Rahm directly.
For a five minute clip selected by the New York Times for posting of a bloggingheads exchange I did with David Frum on Iran stuff, click here.
Before I get too far into this post, while I don’t believe that Rahm Emanuel is serving the Obama White House well as Chief of Staff, I do think he’s brilliant and would excel in other roles for the team — but that is not the purpose of this post.
