The Arab autocrats have been toppled, the Islamists have stepped forth. Islamists have come to various degrees of power in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt. Some prophesy an outcome in Syria destined to favor the Muslim Brotherhood if and when the Assad dictatorship is overthrown. Neighboring Turkey has shown the way. The ballot box has aided the Islamists. How do powers beyond deal with the Islamist ascendency? How will the Islamists adjust to the demands and limitations of the international order of states? Over the next two weeks, a panel of distinguished contributors takes up this vexing challenge from a variety of viewpoints. Return each day for a new perspective.
Bruce Riedel is a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution with 30 years of government experience in the CIA and the National Security Council; Leon Wieseltier is the Literary Editor of The New Republic; Robert Satloff is the executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy with seminal studies of Islamic fundamentalism and the Hashemite kingdom; Reuel Marc Gerecht is a former case officer in the Central Intelligence Agency and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Itamar Rabinovich is a former Israeli Ambassador to Washington, D.C. and Chief Negotiator with Syria; Cengiz Candar is a senior political columnist for the Turkish daily Radikal and a renowned television and print commentator on Middle Eastern politics; Marius Deeb teaches Middle Eastern studies at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a prolific scholar on Syria and Lebanon and the Arab world; Professor Russell Berman, Professor Charles Hill and Professor Fouad Ajami - senior fellows at The Hoover Institution.
