The ongoing political tumult in Yemen threatens to undermine the country as well as American counterterrorism efforts in the region.…
The Palmer Case and the Changing Role of Women in the Foreign Service
There have been a number of prominent women who have served in the State Department over the past century: Francis…
Bill Burns, A Consummate Diplomat
William Joseph Burns, known as Bill to his colleagues, stepped down as Deputy Secretary of State in October 2014 after…
The Collapse of Order in the Middle East
Will Rogers once observed that “when you get into trouble 5,000 miles from home, you’ve got to have been looking…
The Middle East Cauldron
Edward “Skip” Gnehm served as Ambassador to Kuwait shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, from 1991 to 1994, and…
Ambassador Skip Gnehm on the Middle East
The Middle East has been a complicated, if not violent, region for millennia, which has only been exacerbated by recent…
The Grisly Tradition of Beheading
The act of beheading has been used as a means for execution and retribution for millennia. The guillotine, which was…
An Enemy of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia
King Fahd ruled Saudi Arabia from 1982 to 2005, leading it in a strong alliance with the United States and…
Why We Stuck with Maliki — and Lost Iraq
To understand why Iraq is imploding, you must understand Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — and why the United States has…
The Iraqi Revolution — of 1958
In 1958, the 14 July Revolution ended the thirty-seven-year Hashemite monarchy of Iraq in a coup d’état and established the…