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Fully engaging with and understanding Turkey is of critical importance for the United States, and blaming the European Union's continued reluctance to accept Turkey into its ranks oversimplifies the situation and could lead to unintended consequences.
While Turkey, led by Prime Minister Erdogan, pursues an activist foreign policy in the Middle East, troubles with an insurgent Kurdish minority threaten the stability of the AKP’s leadership.
As the political stalemate in Iraq continues to drag on, the major parties and politicians continue to attempt to wrangle the greatest amount of power for themselves even as they continue to break constitutionally mandated deadlines.
Lebanon might have escaped another war, but tensions in the country and the region are high and getting higher, and any one of several issues could trigger local or regional conflagrations.
The balance of power in the Middle East is shifting, and Turkey's changing role and rising influence with other countries provides both a risk and an opportunity for Washington.
Without reconciliation between Palestinian factions and the political reunification of the West Bank and Gaza, not only a better future for Gaza but the two-state solution itself will remain out of reach.
Even if Fayyad is making mild administrative and fiscal improvements in some areas, this cannot obscure the deeper problem that most Palestinian political institutions are actually in deep trouble and the most important ones are in a state of advanced decay.
The international community’s understandable admiration for Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and his efforts to rebuild the West Bank obscures a dangerous regression in democracy and human rights.
Saudi Arabia plays a key role in many issues of critical interest to the United States—including terrorism, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Middle East peace process, and Afghanistan.
Turkey is emerging strongly from the Great Recession, but the Euro area crisis, a soaring current account deficit, and domestic political uncertainty threaten the economy.