Welcome. The scheduling of this book and panel is certainly timely given the rising crisis with iran. We will get to that subject eventually, but the book entitled seven pillars and the discussion is to look more broadly and deeply at the drivers of instability of the middle east. From yemen to syria to iraq and now with iran, the region more than ever seems in a permanent state of turmoil if we cant become a land of before and tragically despite decades of intense and often wellmeaning intentions into the expenditure of billions of dollars, u. S. Policy has more often than not been a failure. Maybe the caveat more often than not is too kind. Its been an absolute failure if one accepts it was a better life for the people of the region. Of course the ones ultimately responsible for the success or failure are the people who live there. But the catastrophe of todays middle east raises a lot of questions about whether the United States should continue to be engaged in the region and if so,
Tragically despite decades of intense and often wellmeaning intentions into the expenditure of billions of dollars, u. S. Policy has more often than not been a failure. Maybe the caveat more often than not is too kind. Its been an absolute failure if one accepts it was a better life for the people of the region. Of course the ones ultimately responsible for the success or failure are the people who live there. But the catastrophe of todays middle east raises a lot of questions about whether the United States should continue to be engaged in the region and if so, how. In this regard, the editors of seven pillars, Michael Rubin and Brian Katulis and their co contributors have given a gift. They identify seven factors that affect stability or not and examine what they mean and the role they play. The pillars that they identify art is long gone era ideology by the military, education, economy and governance. Ive found many of the authors perspectives to be unique and to begin looking at al
Ilbook entitled seven pillars, and the discussion, is to look more broadly and were deeply at the drivers of instability in the middle east. From yemen toem syria to iraq, d now with iran, the region more than ever seen in a permanent state of turmoil, its become a land of endless wars. Tragically, despite decades of intense and often wellmeaning american attention and the expenditure of billions of dollars, u. S. Policy has more often than not been a failure. Maybe they can get more often thanha not is too kind. Ut its been an absolute failure if one accepts the basic aim was to foster disability and a better life for the people in the region. Of course the ones ultimately responsible for for a country success or failure of people who live there. But the catastrophe of todays middle east raises questions about whether the United States should continue to be engaged in the region, and if so, how. In this regard the editors of seven pillars, Michael Rubin and Brian Katulis andha a cocon
Borisjohnson has reassured conservative mps that he will commit to a brexit negotation at the next election, but will leave with no deal if no compromise can be found. And the internet goes into meltdown as super sleuth Coleen Rooney outs fellow wag rebekah vardy, who she accuses of leaking stories to the tabloid press. Hello and welcome im Michelle Fleury in washington and Christian Fraser is in london. It is the norm these days, that Major International announcements come on twitter. Today was no different, the turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced to the world that his country was going to war in Northern Syria to neutralise the kurdish threat. Our mission, he said, is to prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border and to bring peace to the area. The kurdish Led Syrian Democratic forces or sdf had been braced for it for months, but they had been on heightened alert since the weekend when President Trump decided to withdraw us troops. In the United
And if your timeline is not full of football transfer rumours then it may well be full of cats, because today is International Cat day. Hello and welcome. Im katty kay in washington, Christian Fraser is in london. You dont have to become vegan, or even vegetarian to save the planet, but you do have to eat less meat. And you have to do it now. Thats the broad recommendation of a big new un report on land and water resources. Basically if humanity doesnt start farming less intensively we wont be able to carry on feeding ourselves. Already more than 10 of the worlds population is undernourished. Soil is being lost faster than its forming and the number of food deserts is growing. Climate change, with its increase in droughts and floods and storms, is only putting more pressure on our land and water resources. But if we change our diets now, we can help to tackle Climate Change. Heres our science editor david shukman. A wall of dust smothers the parched fields of oklahoma. The planet is he