This workshop report, based on two days of intense discussions hosted by the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University and held under the Chatham House rule, summarizes the predominant views of a select group of Afghan politicians and former military officials, Pakistani journalists and scholars, current and former United Nations officials, diplomats, humanitarian workers, and representatives from the U.S. military on the opportunities for, and obstacles to, security and political reconciliation in Afghanistan.

Review of Mohammed M. Hafez' Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2007)

This article argues that the tactical and strategic divergence in the approach to counterterrorism across the Atlantic is best understood through the prism of strategic culture. The different experiences with international terrorism have contributed to vastly different perceptions of the terrorist threat and in turn to different counterterrorism approaches. The paper introduces the concept of strategic culture, outlines the two continents' experience with terrorism and explains why the end of the Cold War brought new tensions to the fore. It suggests that a strategic culture analysis of the divergent approaches to terrorism will help inform and enrich the ubiquitous one-dimensional realist rendering of the Atlantic divide and demonstrate that under the right conditions, international terrorism, rather than leading to permanent divorce might paradoxically be the very thing that transforms the Atlantic relationship back towards a consolidated Atlantic community.

President Bush's mischaracterization of the Iraq war as a battle against al-Qaeda has led to both a restoration of the extremist group's capabilities to attack the United States and increased support for Jihadist attacks in the region, according to Eric Rosenbach and Matan Chorev.

Matan Chorev believes that the "Kurdistan Option" - withdrawing all troops to Iraqi Kurdistan and creating a long-term presence - is fraught with peril and should be opposed. Instead, he argues that the U.S. should endorse "no more than a transition force in Kurdistan leading to a total withdrawal from the country."

As part of its ongoing negotiations with the European Union, Turkey has made an effort to broaden its definition of national identity to include ethnic and religious sub-groups. This reconciliation process – a welcomed step for Turkey - is held at risk by the inherent instability of the reform process itself and the unpropitious regional and global environment. To continue the path to membership in the EU, interested parties such as the United States will have to play a crucial role in ensuring that Turkey’s fears about the potential negative fallouts from the reform process are not realized.