Is Pakistan collapsing? How far are the Taliban from Islamabad? Can al-Qaeda grab the country’s nuclear weapons? These are the types of questions raised every day by the American media, academia and policy circles. And these are critical issues, given the nature of the evolving crisis in Pakistan. The approximately two dozen suicide bombings in 2009 so far, 66 in 2008, and 61 in 2007, all of which have targeted armed forces personnel, police, politicians, and ordinary people not onl ... » read more

It is a globally recognized fact that a state’s police and law enforcement agencies play a critical role as the first line of defense against the threats of terrorism and insurgencies. An informative RAND study titled How Terrorist Groups End provides evidence that effective police and intelligence work, rather than the use of military force, deliver better counterterrorism results.* Based on this conclusion, the report suggested to U.S. policymakers that they stop using ... » read more

Having chanted the mantra of change that helped sweep him into the White House, Barack Obama now has the opportunity to channel that mantra into reframing American policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He should seize that chance – because it will take a new way of seeing to fix a broken policy that has, for all its fanfare, failed to help Israelis and Palestinians arrive at a just and sustainable peace.   The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more than sixty ye ... » read more

There is an emerging consensus among foreign policy experts
 that the growing insurgency and militancy in Pakistan’s Federally 
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) poses the greatest security
 challenge not only to Pakistan and Afghanistan, but also to the
 United States. Some scholars even project that a major terrorist 
act with al-Qaeda footprints in the United States might result in
 an American strike and ground invasion of this area. ... » read more

  On January 14, 2009, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) and The Century Foundation hosted a conference in Washington, DC, entitled "Restoring U.S. Credibility: Voices from the Arab World." Three Arab scholars from Egypt and Saudi Arabia were invited to America along with several other regional experts from the Middle East. Funding was provided by a grant from the U.S. State Department.   Discussion Moderator Geneive Abdo (foreign policy ... » read more