Middle East & North Africa

225 Items

Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's feared hardline brand of Islamist rule.

Wakil Kohsar / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis & Opinions - The Wall Street Journal

A Way Out of Biden’s Afghan Trap

| Aug. 25, 2021

President Biden seems to have set a trap for himself—and for Americans, allied personnel and Afghans seeking to leave Afghanistan. Those civilians were stranded after Mr. Biden withdrew U.S. troops only to be surprised by the Taliban’s quick takeover. Mr. Biden promised to evacuate them by Aug. 31, and the Taliban said they’d hold him to that deadline. On Monday the administration signaled that it intends to abide by it. It won’t be enough time.

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. delivers remarks at the State Department

State Department Photo by Freddie Everett

Analysis & Opinions - PRI's The World

Biden's reentry on the foreign policy stage

| Feb. 25, 2021

The first 100 days are key to understanding where any presidency is going. Now more than a third of the way into that timeframe, how is President Joe Biden doing in the international policy arena? The World’s host Marco Werman speaks with Nicholas Burns, a former US under secretary of state for political affairs and a former ambassador to NATO.

Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns and former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes join Andrea Mitchell to talk about Biden's next steps on Iran and Russia.

MSNBC

Analysis & Opinions - MSNBC

'Back on center stage globally': Fmr. foreign policy officials on Biden's agenda

| Feb. 19, 2021

Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns and former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes join Andrea Mitchell to talk about Biden's next steps on Iran and Russia. Burns says that Biden's "speech today at the Munich Security Conference has put the United States squarely back on center stage globally."

US President Elect Joe Biden and the European Council

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Analysis & Opinions - The Wall Street Journal

Here’s Where Biden Will Face Early Foreign-Policy Decisions

| Nov. 30, 2020

When it comes to president-elect Joe Biden’s foreign policy in Asia, Europe and Latin America, he is likely to focus on issues like transatlantic cooperation, U.S.-China relations and immigration. Ambassador Nicholas Burns and WSJ journalists examine the impact a Biden administration could have on U.S. allies around the world. 

Analysis & Opinions

Former U.S. Under Secretary of State: “Annexation Would Be A Huge Mistake”

| June 17, 2020

Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Professor at Harvard University and an advisor to Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden, spoke with “The Arena” on the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus crisis (“a failure that has cost over 110,000 Americans lives”), rising U.S.-China tensions (“deeply hurt global recovery efforts from both the coronavirus and the economic crises”), the upcoming presidential election (“Trump has chosen China as his demon”), and Israel’s annexation plans (“the issue that could most harm the U.S.-Israel relationship”).

In this aerial photo from files dated Oct. 20, 2005, Muslim worshippers gather outside the Dome of the Rock Mosque, in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and Jews gather at the Western Wall, bottom center, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem's Old City.

(AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File)

Analysis & Opinions - The Washington Post

America is now implicitly endorsing a one-state solution

| Nov. 19, 2019

Pompeo doesn’t seem to realize it, but the United States is now implicitly endorsing a one-state solution — forcing Israel to make an agonizing decision about whether to deny full rights to the Arab residents of that state. Perhaps Israelis will rebel against making this choice and revive the possibility of a Palestinian state. Or perhaps Arabs, exhausted by this conflict, will induce Palestinians to accept defeat . . . and something less than statehood.