It is the state system established by the European imperial powers, not merely regimes, that is unraveling in the Middle East.

Two things stand out in the Middle East since the Arab Spring began — one that happened, and one that did not. What happened was that for the first time in modern Arab history, authoritarian regimes and rulers were toppled, or seriously challenged, by ...

The recent surge in Turkey’s military actions against the Kurds in northern Iraq is an indication that, somewhat surprisingly — but not entirely unpredictably — Turkish foreign policy has undergone a 180-degree turn in less than two years. The Turkish offensive is also an ...

During the turmoil of the French Revolution, a popular saying arose: “How beautiful was the republic — under the monarchy.” The revolution aimed at achieving liberty, equality and fraternity. Instead, it wrought for France Jacobin terror, rightwing counterterror, decades of war and then Napoleonic ...

JERUSALEM — A few months before he became Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chief adviser, met with a group of Middle Eastern academics and policy experts, including Arabs and Israelis. With his academic background and immense erudition, he ...

JERUSALEM — Although the crisis over Israel’s naval interventions to defend its blockade of Gaza is gaining all the headlines around the world, something of far more historic importance is taking place in the Middle East. The Palestine National Authority is preparing to issue ...

JERUSALEM — Israel’s 60th anniversary has come and gone. So, too, has President George W. Bush’s final visit to the Middle East. Amid the celebrations and the soul-searching, no meaningful breakthrough in the deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is visible. There are immediate reasons why this ...

PRAGUE — Every week, it seems, brings another backward step for Palestine. President Mahmoud Abbas’ failure to convene the Palestinian Legislative Assembly, due to a Hamas boycott, may lead inexorably to the final breakdown of the political structures created under the Oslo Accords. Sadly, ...

JERUSALEM — After Israel’s inability last summer to achieve a conclusive victory over Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, public pressure forced Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government to appoint a commission to examine the causes of this surprising failure. How could a small militia, numbering less ...

LONDON — Today’s crisis in Lebanon is a crisis of the Lebanese state. It is this structural crisis that must be addressed if the violence is to stop. When Israel withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in 2000, the international understanding was that the ...