More than thirty years later, the Iran Hostage crisis still ranks as one of the most traumatic diplomatic events in…
The Assassination of Anwar Sadat, Part II
As a result of Anwar Sadat’s growing authoritarianism and treatment of his opposition, tensions in Egypt began rising shortly after…
The Assassination of Anwar Sadat, Part I
When Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords along with President…
The Birth of the Chemical Weapons Convention (and the OPCW)
Recent events in Syria have once again spotlighted the dangers of chemical weapons and international efforts to catalog and destroy…
A Gamble for Peace – Negotiating the Camp David Accords
Unrest in the Middle East has been an unrelenting problem for centuries, the Gordian knot that cannot be cut. The…
The More Things Change – A Look Back at Syria’s Hafez al-Assad
“You know I have my ups and downs, but I have a pact with God. The pact is that no…
Qaddafi – The Man and His Rise to Power
On September 1st, 1969 Muammar Qaddafi along with a group of officers part of the Free Officers Movement staged a…
The Suez Crisis — And A Different Side of Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser was one of the most influential modern-day leaders in the Middle East. As part of the Free…
A Secret Betrayal — Kurdish Refugees in Iran
Between 1961 and 1975, the relationship between the Kurds and the Iraqi government was especially tumultuous. In 1961, the First…
The 1958 U.S. Marine Invasion of Lebanon – It was no day at the beach
1958 — Lebanon was yet again at the forefront of foreign policy concerns. Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the most…