Marc Ginsberg is a former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco and foreign policy analyst who served in several diplomatic roles across Democratic and Republican administrations. He contributed commentary to The Weekly Standard between 2003 and 2005, focusing on Middle East policy, U.S.-Syria relations, and broader geopolitical strategy in the Arab world.
"WE ASK ALMIGHTY GOD to divide Syria into hundreds of pieces so that the world at large may rest in peace." So prayed a Lebanese military officer quoted in the Voice of Hope, the mouthpiece of the pro-Israeli Southern Lebanese Army, on July 30, 1980.
RICHARD DALEY, THE LATE mayor of Chicago and a master of ward politics, would have been proud. In a Baghdad suburb last week, activists for Prime Minister Allawi's "Iraqi List" were handing out the Middle Eastern equivalent of "walking around money" to Arab media covering the election--a little…
"ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT" and "anger management" both come to mind when one attempts to envisage the transition from a Bush to a Kerry foreign policy. And the changes wouldn't be merely matters of attitude. The first 100 days of a Kerry administration would represent a counterrevolution both in tone…
THE ARAB LEAGUE summit scheduled to begin in Tunisia on March 27 abruptly collapsed in disarray. Just as most of the league's 22 leaders--including a delegation from the Governing Council of Iraq--were preparing to head for Tunis, Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine ben Ali pulled the plug. The…
OVER THE WEEKEND of January 10-13, 300 leaders from the United States and 38 Muslim countries convened in Doha, Qatar, for a "U.S.-Islamic World Forum." Jointly sponsored by the government of Qatar and the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, the forum proved the…
THE LONG, HOT SUMMER of grim news out of Baghdad continues to stoke a fierce debate among Democrats: whether to reward George Bush's increasingly maligned and haphazard pursuit of Iraq's reconstruction with a veil of bipartisanship, or succumb to the demands of hard-core party activists and call…
ACCORDING TO pre-Islamic Alawi belief, people at first were stars in the world of light, but fell from celestial orbit through disobedience. Faithful Alawis believe they must be transformed seven times before returning to take their place among the stars. Syria's rookie Alawite president, Bashar…
UNDER THE ADAGE "save us from our friends," France's president Jacques Chirac has added to his long list of reasons for opposing a U.S.-led campaign to disarm Iraq the desire to "protect" Americans from fighting "angry Muslims." According to a French Defense Ministry official quoted in the Wall…