Maryland: Barry Rubin

By Barry Rubin
The United States–along with Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany–met with Iran in Geneva and officials, media, and experts proclaim it a success. Was its nuclear program what Iran defused or merely Western pressure?
It is widely claimed that the meeting in Geneva obtained three great achievements toward ending the long-running Iran nuclear arms’ [...]

By Barry Rubin
The great French diplomatist Talleyrand put it best: “That’s worse than a crime, it’s a mistake.”
By accepting the Iranian proposal for negotiations, the Obama Administration has just made the most important foreign policy decision of its term so far. And it is a very bad mistake, a very bad one indeed.
True, the [...]

By Barry Rubin
I’m beginning to understand the Obama administration strategy, at least in its initial phase, as a “bridge too far” approach. That expression came after the heroic Allied operation at Arnheim in World War Two, when what seemed a clever idea—to capture a key bridge far ahead of the existing Allied lines—turned into a [...]

By Barry Rubin
By Barry Rubin*
August 11, 2009
http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2009/08/updated-fatah-congress-election...
At the Fatah Congress meeting in Bethlehem, eighteen people were elected to the Central Committee of the group which rules the Palestinian Authority and will determine if there is going to be peace with Israel.
Four more will be appointed by PLO and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud [...]