Think Tanks and other organizations

that publish analyses of war & related issues

(in no particular order….)

·         The Center for Strategic and International Studies 

·         The Council on Foreign Relations has lots of material on Iraq, and a Middle East page; they also have a page of Iraq-related links. 

·         The United States Institute of Peace has a variety of publications, check their various categories. 

·         The Federation of American Scientists keeps many documents and reports on their hot documents page. 

·         The MidEastWeb  includes a lot of Middle East media, has a page on the Iraq Crisis, lots of useful background information.

·         The Foundation for Middle East Peace has many documents, maps, links to all sorts of organizations about Israel, Palestine, and neighbors.  They support a two-state situation. 

·         Our own United for Peace of Pierce County has many peace-related topics. 

·         The National Security Advisors blog is written by some people who are very good on the topic. 

·         The Strategic Studies Institute, at the US Army War College, publishes many interesting studies. 

·         The Washington Center for Middle East Policy has a reputation as a solid, bipartisan analysis. 

·         The SITE institute used to translate many non-English web pages used by violent groups.  Read about it in the New Yorker.  Since then some of its people created the SITE Intelligence Group, similar focus. 

·         The Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, is a translator of Middle East websites.  See also the MEMRI blog.  A ongoing public debate over their particular slant produces criticism (very pro-Israel) and praise (lots of coverage, and their founder worked for both Labor and Likud governments). They also have a project to monitor more violent Islamist Websites.  They do focus on the nastiest sources, a point of frequent criticism.  Know it going in. 

·         The US Military Academy at West Point has a Combating Terrorism Center. 

·         Global Security pays attention to WMD, homeland security, military issues

·         Brookings has pages on Iraq, on Afghanistan, and on Pakistan.  They keep a good deal of data in the form of the Iraq Index, a collection of indicators about the situation in Iraq.

·         The Carnegie Endowment has a page on Middle East issues.  They did a report on postwar policy, oh so many years ago.   

·         DEBKA is an Israeli organization that keeps track of military and intelligence stories in the region.  It has been the subject of some controversy, running several stories before the war that contained false information about WMD.  But on that ground one would avoid the NYT, too.  The site contains military details that few other sources describe, and many critics repeat assertions that Mossad officials are regular contributors. 

·         Stratfor offers some of its products to the general public. 

·         If you are interested in Defense Spending, see the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. 

·         The journalist Robert Fisk, who writes for the Independent.

·         The Human Rights First group keeps a page on court documents on the cases of Jose Padilla. 

·         The Center for Defense Information has a page on Iraq, although not maintained for years.

·         The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is a conservative group that is interested in terrorism issues. 

·         The Center for Security Policy is another conservative group that is interested in terrorism issues.  They are the guys that gave Dick Cheney the “keeper of the flame” award and call him “our Churchill.”  Cheney in the same category as the Guy Who Saved Civilization? 

·         The organization Reprieve represents, among others, prisoners held at Guantanamo. 

·         The Cato Institute has a page on Middle East affairs

·         The Project for a New American Century advocated regime change in Iraq a decade ago. 

·         The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center has a page of international links, chiefly about goings on in Iraq, Iran, and Israel & Palestine.