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Steven A. Cook

Steven A. Cook

Steven A. Cook is Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square. He blogs at From the Potomac to the Euphrates.

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Whoever Wins Egypt's Presidency, the Party is Over for Washington

Whoever Wins Egypt's Presidency, the Party is Over for Washington

Whether Muslim Brother Mohamed Morsi or former Mubarak official Ahmed Shafiq wins the election, the U.S. will face tougher challenges in Cairo.… More »

How Egypt-Watchers Got The Presidential Race So Wrong

How Egypt-Watchers Got The Presidential Race So Wrong

Observers, myself included, underestimated both the Muslim Brotherhood and many peoples' desires to return to something approximating the old order.… More »

Egypt's Mishandling of Sinai Could Risk Unwanted Confrontation With Israel

Egypt's Mishandling of Sinai Could Risk Unwanted Confrontation With Israel

Security on the Egyptian peninsula should be an issue of U.S.-Egyptian-Israel cooperation.… More »

Can We Really Know How the Muslim Brotherhood Would Govern?

Can We Really Know How the Muslim Brotherhood Would Govern?

Questioning the assumptions about how Egypt's big Islamist party will behave.… More »

Why Is Mubarak's Vice President Running for Egypt's Presidency?

Why Is Mubarak's Vice President Running for Egypt's Presidency?

Rating three theories for Omar Suleiman's odd candidacy.… More »

Turkey's Lesson for Egypt: Don't Prosecute Your Military Rulers (Yet)

Turkey's Lesson for Egypt: Don't Prosecute Your Military Rulers (Yet)

What Egyptians can learn from the story of General Kenan Evren, who led a Turkish coup in 1980.… More »

Why It's So Tough to Write About Israel

Why It's So Tough to Write About Israel

The challenge -- and importance -- of good writing on Israel, Palestine, and peace.… More »

The Uncertainties of a Post-Assad Syria

The Uncertainties of a Post-Assad Syria

Many outsiders believe the country would fall into chaos, but this could be false.… More »

Could a Syrian Intervention Work?

Could a Syrian Intervention Work?

The practicality and morality of a Western military mission… More »

Syria and the Limits of Diplomacy

Syria and the Limits of Diplomacy

Understand what will and won't work in pushing Bashar al-Assad from power.… More »

The Egypt-U.S. Breakup: It's Not You, It's Me

The Egypt-U.S. Breakup: It's Not You, It's Me

After decades of partnership, is Cairo serving us with divorce papers?… More »

The Mysterious Plane Crash That Explains U.S.-Egypt Mistrust

The Mysterious Plane Crash That Explains U.S.-Egypt Mistrust

How a 1999 disaster and its aftermath revealed the contradictions and complications of the American-Egyptian partnership… More »

It's Time to Think Seriously About Intervening in Syria

It's Time to Think Seriously About Intervening in Syria

The conventional wisdom in Washington and beyond is that Bashar al-Assad will fall on his own and that an intervention would be counterproductive, but with thousands dying we need to reconsider those assumptions… More »

What America Can Learn From Kuwait About Dealing With Iran

What America Can Learn From Kuwait About Dealing With Iran

What a Kuwaiti perspective on regional politics can teach the West about what might work with Iran -- and what wouldn't… More »

3 Lessons from Egypt's First Day of Voting

3 Lessons from Egypt's First Day of Voting

If Washington is going to be good to its word in supporting change in Egypt, policymakers are going to have to live with an influential Muslim Brotherhood… More »

Why Turkey's Dream of Regional Leadership Failed

Why Turkey's Dream of Regional Leadership Failed

The country's "zero problems" foreign policy was probably doomed from the start… More »

Are We Getting Closer to Using Force in Syria?

Are We Getting Closer to Using Force in Syria?

How many thousands of civilians does Bashar al-Assad have to kill before the world says "enough"?… More »

Egypt's Anti-Christian Violence: How Things Got So Bad

Egypt's Anti-Christian Violence: How Things Got So Bad

For all Egypt's strengths, a serious failure of leadership has allowed sectarian tension to fester, bringing over two dozen deaths in the most recent clash… More »

What Can Israel Do About Tensions With Post-Mubarak Egypt?

What Can Israel Do About Tensions With Post-Mubarak Egypt?

The predictably stable relationship between Egypt and Israel over the last 30 years is now over… More »

Unholy Alliance: How Syria is Bringing Israel, Iran, and Saudi Arabia Together

Unholy Alliance: How Syria is Bringing Israel, Iran, and Saudi Arabia Together

In the new Middle East, a previously unthinkable coalition is joining up in defense of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and the status quo… More »

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