Conflicts Forum

By Ibrahim El Houdaiby, Conflicts Forum, September 30, 2007
Of all the puzzling remarks made by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, naming Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and his regime as one of America’s strongest and most strategic allies in the Middle East is perhaps the most puzzling.
What is strange about the statement is that it portrays […]

By Alastair Crooke, BBC Radio 4, July 15, 2007
At the beginning of the decade I spent a few years in the Middle East, both as an advisor to Javier Solana — the EU’s High Representative for Foreign & Security Policy — and on the staff of the commission set up by former senator George Mitchell […]

BBC News, July 22, 2007
In Part Two of “Talking to Terrorists” (see below for part one), the BBC’s Diplomatic Editor, Brian Hanrahan, explores the debate over Alastair Crooke’s thesis with experts on political Islam and those who believe there should be no talking to groups they see as advocating terror.
Listen to Part Two of Talking […]

BBC News, July 15, 2007
In Part One of a new two-part series, Alastair Crooke, a veteran of secret negotiations in many parts of the world, sets out his personal view that the policy of dialogue with armed groups, that proved successful in the Northern Ireland peace process, should now be used to help resolve conflict […]

By the Rt. Hon. Michael Ancram, MP, Middle East Institute, April 19, 2007
“It is often a better use of time to talk to your enemies than your friends,” so said a wise, experienced and senior Israeli to me a few weeks ago. In a similar vein last summer following the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon […]

Alastair Crooke interviewed by Abdullah Faliq, The Cordoba Foundation, October-December, 2006
“…what Muslims hate is the West’s monopoly on the socio-economic implementation of values such as justice, freedom, good governance, which all Muslims share. Muslims don’t believe simply that the West is the only model of the implementation of these values, and the only way you […]