Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President

"Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President"


Brookings Institution, December 18, 2008

Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President is the final product of an eighteen month Saban Center at Brookings-Council on Foreign Relations project. This effort involved fifteen of our senior Middle East experts who joined together for the first time to conduct in-depth research, travel to the region, and hold interviews with its leaders in order to develop a series of policy recommendations for President-elect Barack Obama. The teams met on three occasions with a Board of Advisors, a group of former government officials and leaders in the public and private sectors, who critiqued drafts of the papers, but were not asked to endorse the views presented.

The Saban Center at Brookings-Council on Foreign Relations project was launched with the aim of presenting non-partisan policy recommendations during the period between Election Day and the inauguration—the transition period—when policy, not politics would be the focus in Washington. Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President addresses the six most pressing Middle East challenges for the incoming president: Iran, Iraq, the Arab-Israeli conflict, proliferation, terrorism, and political and economic development. Each of these issues is addressed in policy planning papers that have been brought together in one book. Based on each policy paper’s conclusions and recommendations, an overall strategy paper was then drafted.