To shape an effective strategy in the Middle East, it is essential to understand three distinct timelines that are shaping developments: the short-term timeline of daily struggles, the medium-term timeline of geopolitical shifts, and the long-term timeline of sociocultural transformation.

One aspect of the Ukraine crisis that both Russia and the West need to understand is that the rest of the world appears to be relatively unconcerned about it.

The Geneva II conference on Syria, set to begin in Montreux, Switzerland, this week, is unlikely to achieve its goal of forming a transitional governing authority with full executive powers, but it could produce a ceasefire agreement between government and opposition forces.

Some people now warn of a "Lebanonization" of Syria — its partition into quasi-independent regions — which could call the entire post-World War I Middle Eastern state system.

The eruption of the Arab revolts in 2010-2011 put power relations among Middle East countries in a state of flux. Both winners and losers have emerged.

BERLIN — Fuad Siniora, Lebanon's former prime minister, is a thoughtful man with deep experience in Middle Eastern politics. So when he speaks of "trains with no drivers that seem to be on a collision course," as he recently did at a private meeting ...

BERLIN — With U.S. President George W. Bush in Europe getting EU leaders to agree to toughen U.N. sanctions against Iran, and with the ongoing debate between John McCain and Barack Obama about whether the United States needs to talk with Iran's rulers, the ...

BERLIN — The recent comprehensive assessment by America's spy agencies about Iran's nuclear program and ambitions — the "National Intelligence Estimate" — has opened the door to fresh strategic discussions among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany. Such ...

BERLIN -- Following the formation of a Palestinian unity government between Fatah and Hamas, and the Arab League summit that revived King Abdullah's peace plan of 2002, it is time for the so-called Middle East Quartet, consisting of the European Union, Russia, the United ...