April 1, 2009
World Politics Review
Abstract:
The Obama administration's emphasis on "smart power" is by now well known. To most observers, that has meant the need to "balance and integrate all elements of our national power" in order to deter and defeat emerging threats, as President Barack Obama himself put it in a speech at National Defense University in Washington on March 12.
Many have focused on Obama's insistence, in the same speech, that "we cannot continue to push the burden on to our military alone" and his commitment to "comprehensive engagement with the world." What has gotten less attention is the central role Obama foresees in this approach for "strengthened partnerships with . . . foreign militaries and security forces that can combat . . . common enemies."
The principle underpins Obama's new, "cooperative" strategy for the Afghanistan war, announced last week. But it also applies to the Middle East, where Washington is quietly building an alliance of heavily armed, pro-U.S. nations meant to contain Iran.
This plan relies on record levels of arms sales to friendly Middle Eastern governments, particularly of missile-defense systems. "Bilateral active missile-defense measures underway are vital elements of regional deterrence and of defensive cooperation, and they should be expanded," Gen. David Petraeus, commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, said at a December summit in the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. government-brokered Foreign Military Sales doubled to more than $20 billion between 2005 and 2006. By 2008, proposed FMS deals had reached a record $50 billion. Three-quarters of the sales were requested by Middle East allies. Washington subsidizes around 20 percent of the weapons deals to the region....
December 4, 2008
World Public Opinion.Org
Abstract:
A poll of seven majority Muslim nations finds people conflicted about the United Nations. On one hand there is widespread support for a more active UN with much broader powers than it has today. On the other hand, there is a perception that the UN is dominated by the US and there is dissatisfaction with UN performance on several fronts, particularly in dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These are the findings from a WorldPublicOpinion.org survey in Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Iran, Indonesia, the Palestinian Territories, and Azerbaijan. Muslims in Nigeria (50% of the general population) were also polled. The survey was conducted in two waves in 2008. Overall, 6,175 respondents were interviewed in the first wave and 5,363 in the second; a total of 11,538 respondents participated in the study. The first wave was conducted January 12-February 18, 2008 though in two nations it was completed in late 2006. The second wave for all nations was completed July 21-August 31, 2008.Margins of error range from +/-2 to 5 percent. Not all questions were asked in all countries....
September 12, 2008
WorldPublicOpinion.org
Abstract:
A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 17 nations finds that majorities in only nine of them believe that al Qaeda was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. In no country does a majority agree on another possible perpetrator, but in most countries significant minorities cite the US government itself and, in a few countries, Israel. These responses were given spontaneously to an open-ended question that did not offer response options. On average, 46 percent say that al Qaeda was behind the attacks while 15 percent say the US government, seven percent Israel, and seven percent some other perpetrator. One in four say they do not know. WPO_911_Sep08_graph.jpgGiven the extraordinary impact the 9/11 attacks have had on world affairs, it is remarkable that seven years later there is no international consensus about who was behind them," comments Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org....
August 13, 2008
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
When the United Arab Emirates announced in June it was forgiving billions of dollars in Iraqi debt (Al Arabiya), President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed vowed to alleviate "the economic burden faced by the brotherly Iraqi people." But some observers saw the move more as an investment in security than an economic bailout. "The bottom line is that the Iraqi crisis can spill over to impact the political, security, and strategic scene" in Gulf Arab states, writes Abdulaziz O. Sager, chairman of the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. Arab diplomacy may be " a first step" to containing that threat, Sager writes....
September 6, 2007
National Catholic Reporter
Abstract:
In February, journalist Noah Merrill went to Amman, Jordan and spent six weeks interviewing Iraqi refugees there. Most of the 750,000 to a million refugees now living in Jordan have come in the last four years, but the number includes refugees who arrived prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. The Iraqi diaspora must be seen within the perspective of 30 years of Iraqi suffering, beginning with the Iran-Iraq war that killed more than a million, Merrill said.
The following are stories of five refugees now living in Amman.
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Jordan 
