Should the U.S. government talk to terrorist groups? Freelance foreign affairs analyst Perry offers a resounding "yes." His argument, however, is based on a specious reading of recent events in Iraq, which he then extrapolates to other violent players in the Middle East.

The Iraq Effect is a thought-provoking but flawed study commissioned by the U.S. Air Force on the regional implications of the 2003 Iraq war. Trends discussed may be real, but their presence before Operation Iraqi Freedom suggests that they should not be attributed only to the war.

Hay's mission was to establish civil administration as the British took control of Iraq from Ottoman authorities.

Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak’s fall is the end of the beginning rather than the beginning of the end.

Mubarak's fall will have even deeper reverberations throughout the region than Ben Ali's did. Which will be the next dominoes to drop?

On the first anniversary of the pro-democracy uprising in Bahrain, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Middle East scholar Michael Rubin warns that Bahrain could be headed for a bloodbath with dangerous repercussions for the United States.

Iraq in Transition is one of the better post-Iraq war overviews, a well-written summary of developments after coalition forces occupied Baghdad.

Criminals, Militias, and Insurgents identifies two waves of organized crime in Iraq: One took advantage of the collapse of the state and of the breakdown of social control; the other was defined by political ambition and the need to find resources for militias.