The Road Ahead: Middle East Policy in the Bush Administration's Second Term

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The war on terror and the battle in Iraq provided the framework for George W. Bushs first term in office. As he embarked on a second term, the president reaffirmed his administrations commitment to a transformative Middle East agenda that now includes the challenges of promoting democracy, non-proliferation, and Israeli-Palestinian peace. The Saban Center at the Brookings Institution commissioned a group of its experts to critique the Bush administrations first-term performance and present alternative approaches for its second term. The Road Ahead covers the full set of challenges confronting President Bush in his second term: from fighting Binladenism to promoting Arab reform; from achieving Middle East peace to saving Iraq; and from tackling Iran to engaging Syria and Saudi Arabia. The contributors argue that the Bush administration will need to develop an integrated Middle East strategy that improves the prospects for achieving a priority identified during the 2004 presidential campaign: strengthening alliances and utilizing them to ease the burden on American leadership. The Road Ahead provides the necessary elements for a genuinely integrated strategic framework that will help decisionmakers manage both the changes and the continuities in Americas post-9/11 Middle East policy. Contributors: Martin Indyk, Flynt Leverett, Kenneth Pollack, James Steinberg, Shibley Telhami, and Tamara Cofman Wittes, all connected with the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution. A Saban Center Report

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"Rarely does one find such clarity and focused reasoning as that displayed throughout this collection of policy papers." John W. Sutherlin, University of Louisiana, Middle East Policy

"Rarely does one find such clarity and focused reasoning as that displayed throughout this collection of policy papers." John W. Sutherlin, University of Louisiana, Middle East Policy Council

Author Bio

Flynt Leverett is a senior fellow and director of the Global Energy Initiative in the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. Most recently, Leverett was a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy. He has served as senior director for Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, and as a senior Middle East analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency.