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Barak Barfi

An Israeli Druze woman looks over the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria on May 4.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 1, 2025

Israel’s Syria policy could fuel more conflict and disorder

Israeli policy, part of a decades-old strategy of undermining Sunni power, risks paving the way for the emergence of a formidable new threat.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's downfall stemmed from his failure to reform the country's corrupt, sectarian regime and an economy ravaged by war, leaving his government unable to withstand the recent rebel offensive.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 13, 2024

Syria’s kleptocratic rule and a house of cards

Like the fictional mafia family, Assad’s regime relied on kickbacks from wealthy business owners and shaking down foreigners.

A Palestinian girl searches the remains of a house in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, that was destroyed during the recent Israeli-Hamas fighting on Sunday.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 11, 2023

What’s next after Hamas’ deadly border raid?

The attack on Israel mirrors that of the Yom Kippur War. As in 1973, Israel has much soul-searching to do, but the outcome could differ considerably.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 20, 2022

Biden’s return to realism in Saudi Arabia

Contrary to critics’ claims, U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia does not amount to a destabilizing display of American weakness.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 18, 2018

The U.S.-Saudi relationship after the Khashoggi affair

Common interests and mutual dependence will almost certainly prevail over the desire to hold the Saudis to higher standards.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 17, 2017

Trump’s Middle East supporters

Donald Trump’s embrace of some Arab leaders, while leaving others alone, suits most Middle East governments quite well.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 8, 2016

Obama’s Syria policy stokes smoldering conflicts

The Kurds and Turks who were meeting in 2012 are now in each other’s crosshairs, and the Obama administration is stuck in yet another Middle Eastern quagmire.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 19, 2016

Red Sea island sale underlines Egypt’s weakness

Egypt’s facade of regional greatness came crashing down when it relinquished two islands to Saudi Arabia in exchange for aid.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 20, 2015

This is no time to abandon Yemen

To ensure that the recent overthrow of its government by the Shiite Houthi rebel movement does not deal Yemen the lethal blow that it has avoided so far, the international community must not abandon the country in what may be its hour of greatest need.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 13, 2014

Gadhafi casts a long shadow

Libya’s leaders — and their Western benefactors — must realize that only modernization of Libya’s state and society — the agenda that Moammar Gadhafi pursued, albeit in a perverted form — will ensure the country’s survival.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 15, 2013

The narrative plot against Syria

America must focus on unifying Syria’s bickering rebels before it can persuade Syrians that the campaign to destroy chemical weapons is not aimed at imposing a neo-colonial order.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 14, 2013

Co-opting militias takes priority over Benghazi

As the United States struggles to understand last September’s attack on its diplomatic mission in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, a formal investigation has not even been opened in Libya — and likely never will be.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 12, 2012

Libya’s unwilling revolutionaries

Egypt is not the only place where the bright hopes of the Arab Spring are fading. From attacks against Western governments to ethnic clashes in remote desert oases, Libya’s revolution is faltering.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 28, 2011

Rebuilding the ruins of post-Gadhafi Libya

With the creation of a new government, Libya’s leaders should finally be able to focus on organizing the transition from the authoritarian state that they inherited to the more pluralistic one they envisage. But are they really able and willing to achieve that goal?

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 29, 2011

Libya faces period of reliance on foreign help

Six months after Libyan rebels took up arms against the country’s leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi, they have finally toppled him.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 15, 2011

Just how new is Egypt’s ‘new’ foreign policy?

In the months since Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, his successors have signaled a shift in foreign policy by reaching out to former adversaries. Egypt’s government has welcomed Iranian diplomats and embraced the Palestinian group Hamas.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 1, 2011

Regime clash is personal

SANAA — When Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered his military March 18 to fire on peaceful protesters calling for his resignation, he sealed his fate. A wave of military, government and diplomatic defections, led by his longtime ally First Armored Brigade Commander General Ali Muhsin al-Ahmar,...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 26, 2011

The battle for Bahrain

MANAMA — The fervor for change that inspired revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt is now rocking Bahrain. But the uprising in Manama differs from the mass protests that turned out longtime rulers in North Africa. Indeed, sectarian fault lines, together with the security forces’ complete fealty to the monarchy,...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.

What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival

By Alex K.T. Martin

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