Brian M. Burton is a Research Associate at the Center for a New American Security. He is also a graduate student at Georgetown University's Security Studies Program. He received a B.A. in Political Science with Interdisciplinary Honors in International Security Studies from Stanford
University.
The Washington foreign policy community has a hot new buzzword: "Af-Pak," an amalgamation of Afghanistan and Pakistan meant to denote the ongoing "two-front war" that Islamist militants are currently waging in both countries. In fact, "Af-Pak" is the latest example of an acronym that acts as a bumper-sticker substitute for real strategic thinking, stifling public debate about hard issues. more
American foreign policy analysts' fallacious and increasingly dangerous tendency to blame Iran for all of the troubling developments in the Middle East is a recipe for policies that ignore important local factors driving instability. In order to counter Iran's influence, it is essential to address each of its "proxies" on its own terms. Lumping together disparate Arab political movements as "Tehran's friends" glosses over their root causes and offers a grossly oversimplified prescription for dealing with them. more