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The Israel-UAE deal puts the “forever” in “forever war”
By Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President
The New Republic, 8/20/20
It is by now almost a formality: In the Middle East, nothing either good or bad can transpire without Washington pointing to Tehran’s alleged hegemonic designs as the force behind it. So it was with the so-called peace deal announced last week between Israel and the United Arab Emirates: Two countries who were never at war declared peace, and the Trump administration—along with much of Washington—quickly deemed it historic. Though the two states have intimately (but quietly) collaborated on security matters for years, the announcement of their security alliance was, according to the conventional wisdom, a groundbreaking move that was only made possible due to their shared sense of threat from Iran.
READ HERE
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The pointless cruelty of Trump’s new Syria sanctions
By Senior Research Analyst Steven Simon and Non-Resident Fellow Joshua Landis
Foreign Affairs, 8/17/20
Last December, U.S. President Donald Trump adopted extraordinarily tough and wide-ranging new sanctions against the Syrian government and its supporters. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials have been subject to U.S. sanctions since 2011, but the new measures, which took effect in mid-June, are sweeping: they apply to anyone, Syrian or non-Syrian, who aids or does business with the Assad regime or with any entities it controls.
READ HERE
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The American public wants less war. Can Joe Biden deliver?
By Stephen Wertheim, Deputy Director of Research and Policy
The Guardian, 8/18/20
Senator Kamala Harris is a “big slasher of funds for our military”, says President Trump. If only. The truth is that Harris, like the person who selected her as his running mate, is a mainstream advocate of globe-spanning US military dominance. Last month she voted against cutting the $740bn annual military budget by a mere 10%, though she said she supported reductions as a goal.
READ HERE
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Belarus’s protests aren’t particularly anti-Putin
By Rajan Menon, Non-Resident Fellow
Foreign Policy, 8/19/20
The mass uprising sparked by the viciousness of Belarus’s security services toward protests against an apparently fraudulent presidential election this month caught everyone by surprise. Although the vote, which incumbent President Aleksandr Lukashenko claimed to have won by more than 80 percent, was clearly rigged, the expectation inside Belarus and in the world beyond was that contemporary Europe’s longest-ruling dictator, having dominated Belarus for 26 years, would continue doing so.
READ HERE
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Rethinking U.S. Middle East policy starts with rejecting annexation
By Non-Resident Fellows Aslı Bâli and Aziz Rana
Responsible Statecraft, 8/19/20
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) introduced a bill last week titled the “Israeli Annexation Non-recognition Act” stating that “[i]t is the policy of the United States not to recognize any claim by the Government of Israel of sovereignty over any part of the occupied West Bank including its airspace.”
READ HERE
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The Bernie Sanders doctrine on foreign policy
By Daniel Bessner, Non-Resident Fellow
Jacobin, 8/20/20
When Bernie Sanders first ran for the Democratic nomination in 2016, Matt Duss was among those who identified foreign policy as an underdeveloped area in the progressive critique of the party consensus. At the time, Duss was the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He joined Sanders’s Senate staff in early 2017, and later worked on the Sanders campaign as its foreign policy advisor, playing a key role in developing the broader vision that was articulated in 2020.
READ HERE
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Quincy VP Trita Parsi discusses UAE-Israel deal
Interviewed: Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President
Deutsche Welle News, 8/20/20
Watch Quincy Institute Executive Vice President Trita Parsi discussing the new agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, the rationale for this deal, and the countries’ mutual interest in opposing U.S. military withdrawal from the Middle East.
WATCH HERE
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WEBINAR: Building back better: A post-Trump foreign policy
With Sen. Chris Murphy, Amb. Dan Baer, Loyce Pace, Carlyn Reichel, & Maggie Thomas. Moderated by Heather Hurlburt.
Co-Hosted by Foreign Policy for America, J Street, Quincy Institute, Truman National Security Project, Oxfam America Action Fund, & National Security Action, 8/18/20
WATCH HERE
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- Blame it on the Blob: How to evaluate American grand strategy by Francis Gavin/ Cited: Quincy Institute, War on the Rocks, 8/21/20
- The Biden doctrine exists already. Here's an inside preview by James Traub/ Quoted: President Andrew Bacevich, Foreign Policy, 8/20/20
- Critics say Trump push to sell fighter jets and armed drones to Emirates confirms U.S.-Israel-UAE deal 'was never about peace' by Jake Johnson & Andrea Germanos/ Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, Common Dreams, 8/20/20
- Trump demands restoration of ‘snapback’ sanctions on Iran by Carol Morello & Felicia Sonmez/ Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, Washington Post, 8/19/20
- The conceit of American indispensability by Sam Klug/ Cited: Deputy Director of Research and Policy Stephen Wertheim, Boston Review, 8/18/20
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