Juan Cole — Next Friday in Washington

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My blogging colleague, Juan Cole, who publishes the blog, Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion, will be speaking at a forum I am chairing next week at the New America Foundation. He will be speaking about his just released book, Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East.

Australian American Leadership Dialogue — Melbourne

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I’m into the second day of an extraordinary set of meetings, the 15th annual Australian American Leadership Dialogue, staged in Melbourne, Australia. They are extraordinary because of the seriousness and general candor of discussions ranging from climate change policy challenges to the mess in Iraq to brewing issues in Asia and with China.

Saudi Arabia’s No Nonsense Views on American Decline in the Middle East

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I shared some views on Saudi Arabia’s steely-eyed, unsentimental assessment of the deteriorating situation in Iraq and the consequences of America’s decline in the region with this Radio Free Europe journalist, Abubakar Siddique.

Update from Steve — Strategic Planning is Going Well

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Steve just called in from Spectacle Lake via satellite phone to make sure readers have not abandoned TWN in his absence. He’s happy to report no run-ins with any bears thus far but is prepared to fend them off with his self-taught Davy Crockett maneuvers. Apparently the wilderness air does wonders for strategic planning.

Beyond Arms Sales: Whither the US-Saudi Relationship?

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The firestorm of controversy that ignited this week over the arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other gulf states opens up an important debate that needs to be thoroughly explored, yet the thrust of the discussion–typified by Bret Stephens fulminating this morning against supposed Saudi malevolent intentions in his column “A Kernel of Evil“–has largely…