Roundup: Media's Take

John Gledhill: Whither Egypt's Military?

[John Gledhill is a fellow in global politics at the London School of Economics.] When the Egyptian military declared that it would not turn on its own people early last week, Cairo’s opposition groups breathed a sigh of relief. With the military taken out of the equation, the path to peaceful regime change in Egypt seemed clear. But by renouncing the use of force “against the Egyptian people,” the military simply created space for the development of an equal, if not gr

Michael Vlahos: Colonial Britain, Neocolonial America?

[Michael Vlahos is Professor of Strategy at the United States Naval War College. He is the author of Fighting Identity: Sacred War and World Change] The United States has pursued a self-defeating client king strategy in the greater Middle East. It failed in Iran in 1979 and it has failed now in Egypt. It has failed because the global spirit of the age has changed, and America has not yet changed with it. This is an issue of practical strategy and not an idealistic hope. We need to g

Chase Madar: Why Bradley Manning Is a Patriot, Not a Criminal

[Chase Madar is an attorney in New York and a member of the National Lawyers Guild.  He writes for TomDispatch, the American Conservative magazine, Le Monde Diplomatique, and the London Review of Books.] Bradley Manning, a 23-year-old from Crescent, Oklahoma, enlisted in the U.S. military in 2007 to give something back to his country and, he hoped, the world.F

Ulrich Beck: The Way out of the Euro Crisis

[Ulrich Beck is a sociologist at the University of Munich and the London School of Economics.] THE EURO is burning. Where are the European intellectuals clamoring to offer an enthusiastic defense of the unfinished project of the European Union and its historical achievements in its hour of need? Where are the intellectuals arguing against the EU critics’ national misunderstanding? This cadre has no members. Yet the situation is rapidly coming to a head. The member gover

Gene Lyons: What the Right Won't Admit about Reagan

[Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of "The Hunting of the President" (St. Martin's Press, 2000).] Nothing better symbolized Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday celebration than that it should fall on Super Bowl Sunday, with Air Force jets roaring unseen over a hermetically sealed stadium, almost, but not quite, drowning out a tarted-up former Mouseketeer who mangled the lyrics of the Star-Spangled Banner.

John Tierney: Reagan and Obama: Pragmatism Ascendant

[John Tierney is former Professor of Political Science at Boston College .] The cover article in the most recent issue of Time magazine asserts that President Obama sees Ronald Reagan as a role model. In their article, Michael Scherer and Michael Duffy examine how and why Obama finds Reagan's presidency instructive. Over on The Atlantic Wire, Alex Eichler responded to this latest contribution to Reagan-Obama mania by putting the whole preoccupation under the "Cl

Gadi Taub: Opposites Attract

[Gadi Taub is an assistant professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.] It is an old adage that political opposites converge. But when it actually happens, it’s still a surprise. And in the last year or so, in Israel, it did: Extreme hawks on the right, and extreme anti-Zionists on the left, seem to have arrived at more or less the same plan for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The surprising change came from the right, which so far was vague on its vision

Barry M. Lando: Give Us a Break, Henry

[Barry M. Lando, a graduate of Harvard and Columbia University, spent 25 years as an award-winning investigative producer with “60 Minutes.” He has produced numerous articles, a documentary and a book, “Web of Deceit,” about Iraq. Lando is finishing a novel, “The Watchman’s File.”] It’s always comforting to have Henry Kissinger around to advise the current U.S. administration on what to do. His latest advice to President Barack Obama regarding Egypt: Slow down, take things easier, d

Crispin Burke: What Can Ike and Lawrence of Arabia Teach Us about Army Personnel Policy?

[The author is an observer/controller at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany.] A recent Atlantic article by Tim Kane spotlights several top-performing officers who lament the military's "peacetime" personnel system, which promotes officers along a generic timeline. Many point to the promotion policies during the two World Wars, when innovative officers enjoyed meteoric advancement through the ranks. Anecdotes from the private sector and even the

Sallai Meridor: What Israel Fears in Egypt

[The writer was Israel's ambassador to the United States from 2005 to 2009.] One might expect that Israelis, who live in the only democracy in the Middle East, would turn out in the squares of Jerusalem and the gardens of Tel Aviv to show solidarity with the demonstrators in Egypt. The protesters, after all, are seeking to overthrow an authoritarian regime. Israelis, however, have stayed at home, warily following events on TV and the Internet. It is not a

Stephen Kinzer: Dictators' Sons, From Egypt to Libya, Are Doomed

[Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent. His new book is Reset: Iran, Turkey and America's Future.] Hosni Mubarak is falling from power in Egypt partly because he refused to heed one of history’s hidden lessons: Dictators shouldn’t have sons. Most do. That often hastens their downfall or that of their nations. Egyptians might have been willing to accept their lot for a while longer if the ailing Mubarak had not made it clear he intended hi

Asef Bayat: Egypt, and the Post-Islamist Middle East

For years, western political elites and their local allies have charged the Arab peoples with political apathy and lethargy. The argument that Arabs are uninterested in seeking to wrest greater democratic freedoms from their authoritarian rulers always rested on shaky foundations. But now that millions of Egyptians, following the Tunisians’ example, have proved it wrong by mobilising against power, the sceptical ground has adjusted: toward the murmured fear that Egypt’s uprising would develop in

Tarek Osman: Egypt: After Revolt, Transition

[Tarek Osman is an Egyptian writer. He was educated at the American University in Cairo and Bocconi University in Italy. He is the author of Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak (Yale University Press, 2010)] The first factor is the transformation in the composition of the country’s middle class. This group of public-sector employees, professionals, army officers and owners of small- and medium-sized enterprises coalesced in the 1950s and 1960s. But in the mid-197

David Bukay: Misconception or Betrayal? The U.S., Egypt, and Iran

[David Bukay, Ph.D. is at the School of Political Science, the University of Haifa.] The similarities between Iran and Egypt concerning U.S. policy are disconcerting. Is Egypt repeating the 1979 Iranian revolution, led by religious preaching against authoritarian friend of the U.S., the shah, resulting in an Islamic theocracy? Will the Islamic theocracy led by the Muslim Brotherhood win, or will the military keep its political power?... Both branches of the Muslim Br

Jonah Goldberg: The Real 'Realism' on Israel

[Jonah Goldberg is a syndicated columnist and editor at large for the National Review] Finally, I can put the rumors to rest: The land of Zion isn't merely an abstraction, it's an actual country. I am in Israel — my first time — to cover the Herzliya Conference, the country's premier national security forum. (Full disclosure: My trip, as well as that of several journalists, was underwritten by the Emergency Committee for Israel, which seeks "to educate the public a

Moataz A. Fattah: Five Reasons Why Arab Regimes are Falling

[Moataz A. Fattah is an associate professor of political science at Cairo University and Central Michigan University. He is also a fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and the author of “Democratic Values in the Muslim World.”] Public protests in Egypt are not about minor changes or grievances. President Hosni Mubarak’s regime faces a deep process of legitimacy erosion – the same pattern of legitimacy erosion that exists across much of the Arab region. This er

James Bernard Murphy: In Defense of Being a Kid

[Mr. Murphy is a professor of government at Dartmouth College.] Amy Chua, the “tiger mother,” is clearly hitting a nerve—especially among the anxious class (it used to be called the upper class), which understands how much skill and discipline are necessary for success in the new economy.... Our wisest sages also disagree fundamentally about the nature of childhood. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle famously declared that “no child is happy” on the grounds that ch

Douglas Murray: Cameron's Multicultural Wake-Up Call

[Mr. Murray is director of the Center for Social Cohesion in London.] 'Multiculturalism has failed," said British Prime Minister David Cameron last weekend in Munich. If anybody thought they had read those words before, it is because they have. Many times. Last October German Chancellor Angela Merkel (sitting onstage with Mr. Cameron when he gave his speech on Saturday) said the same. Finally, Europe's mainstream party leaders seem to be realizing what others have long noticed:

Daniel Gordis: A Friendship of Values, Not Convenience

[Daniel Gordis is the senior vice president of the Shalem Center and the author, most recently, of “Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End.”] FOR decades Shimon Peres, now Israel’s president, has spoken of his country’s yearning for a “new Middle East,” one in which Israel is at peace with its neighbors, regional economies cooperate and the conflict with the Palestinians is finally set aside. Now, with Egypt’s government on the edge of collapse, Israel

Richard Lourie: World War IV

[Richard Lourie is the author of “The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin” and “Sakharov: A Biography.”] The horrendous bombing at Domodedovo Airport was quickly eclipsed by the Egyptian uprising, but both are incidents in the new world war. That war began on Sept. 11, 2001, with an act of violence as specific as the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in August 1914 that started World War I. World War II also began with specific acts of violence — the invasion of P