Current Analysis Strategic Commodity 101 Every US president since Jimmy Carter has spoken earnestly of the need to wean America from “foreign oil,” which is often more bluntly called “Middle East oil.” After the September 11, 2001 attacks and the resulting spotlight on Saudi Arabia, the clamor grew, only to subside, and now has resurfaced Chris Toensing • 3 min read
Current Analysis The Siren Song of Ron Paul Say Ron Paul were actually elected president. Say that, in his proverbial first 100 days, he used his bully pulpit to push for two things: deep cuts in aid to Israel and other US allies, and elimination [http://www.grist.org/article/paul1] of Federal subsidies for alternative energy research. Which Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Better Ten Years Late Than Never At long last, after a few false starts and much gnashing of teeth, MERIP is entering the blogosphere. The blog is intended to be what most blogs run by publications are: a place for our editors and writers to post short pieces of analysis or commentary on important issues in the public eye. We will Chris Toensing • 1 min read
Current Analysis Ratcheting Up the Rhetoric on Iran Nothing is certain except for death and taxes. But in campaign season, it’s awfully predictable that Democratic politicians will do a little chest thumping about foreign policy. As the 2012 presidential contest approaches, the Obama administration is ratcheting up its rhetoric against Iran, right on Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis A New Clarity for Washington Conventional wisdom holds that Washington is one of the big losers in the 2011 upheavals across the Arab world. Two long-time allies, Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Egypt’s Mubarak, have fallen, and in their place elections have empowered Islamists, precisely as the deposed dictators had warned for decades. Another Chris Toensing • 3 min read
Current Analysis Blocking Palestinian Statehood When President Barack Obama addressed the UN General Assembly in September 2010, he sounded hopeful that by the following year there would be “an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations -- an independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel.” Sure enough, Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Washington's Physics Problem in Iraq The Joint Chiefs of Staff, says its chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, has a “physics problem.” According to a 2008 accord between the United States and Iraq, the US military is to be evacuated from Mesopotamia -- down to the last tank mechanic and dishwasher -- by the close of the calendar year. Lately, Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Washington Still Refuses to Learn an Obvious Lesson Back in 2004, three years into the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the 9/11 Commission report made its debut to the gushing admiration of the Washington press corps. The report was everything that the mainstream media adores: bipartisan, devoid of divisive finger-pointing, full of conventional wisdom. Tak Chris Toensing • 2 min read
MER Article Tunisian Labor Leaders Reflect Upon Revolt The Tunisian revolution of January 2011 drew upon the participation of nearly every social stratum. Organized labor threw its weight into the struggle early on, in an important sign of the breadth and depth of opposition to the rule of the dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. In mid-March, the Sacrame Chris Toensing • 7 min read
Current Analysis Seeking "Stability" Stability is the least understood and most derided of the trio of strategic interests pursued by the United States in the Middle East since it became the region’s sole superpower. Vexing, because it is patently obvious code for coziness with kings, presidents-for-life and other unsavory autocrats. P Chris Toensing • 3 min read
Current Analysis No More Mr. Nice Autocracy Egyptian current events prove one point for good: Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, US presidents wish their favored Arab states would forever remain nice, docile autocracies. Of course, the Obama administration protests loudly to the contrary. President Barack Obama has gone on nati Chris Toensing • 3 min read
Current Analysis Into Egypt's Uncharted Territory Amidst the monumental Egyptian popular uprising of 2011, Plan A for the Egyptian regime and the Obama administration was for Husni Mubarak to remain president of Egypt indefinitely. They have now moved on to Plan B. Hesham Sallam, Joshua Stacher, Chris Toensing • 12 min read
