Alastair Crooke

Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat, and founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum.

Pompeo Takes a Page From the Bernard Lewis Playbook on Iran

Inspired by his intellectual hero Bernard Lewis, Pompeo, together with Richard Perle’s PNAC colleague, John Bolton, seems to be itching to using the Lewis recipe of ‘hitting Iran between the eyes with a big stick.

Pompeo Takes a Page From the Bernard Lewis Playbook on Iran

Bernard Lewis, a British-American historian of the Middle East, has been formidably influential in America – his policy ideas have towered over Presidents, policy-makers and think-tanks, and they still do. Though he died last year, his baleful views still shape America’s thinking about Iran. Mike Pompeo, for example, has 

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Alastair Crooke

Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat, and founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum.

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A Major Regional Reset: The Syria Outcome Will Haunt Those Who Started This War

The US and their Gulf Countries and scrambling to salvage what’s left of their diplomatic clout following their failed venture in Syria.

A Major Regional Reset: The Syria Outcome Will Haunt Those Who Started This War

The Middle East is metamorphosing. New fault lines are emerging, yet Trump’s foreign policy ‘hawks’ are still trying to stage ‘old movies’ in a new ‘theatre’. The ‘old movie’ is for the US to ‘stand up’ Sunni, Arab states, and lead them towards confronting ‘bad actor’ Iran. ‘Team Bolton’ is reverting back to the old 1996 

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Alastair Crooke

Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat, and founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum.

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The Iranian Albatross that Donald Trump Has Hung Around Its Own Neck

Trump’s policy of not just exiting JCPOA, but of going that ‘mile’ further in seeking to overthrow Iran as well, through sanctions will eventually become seen as ‘the Albatross’ which Trump injudiciously – and without compelling need – hung about his own neck.

The Iranian Albatross that Donald Trump Has Hung Around Its Own Neck

Mr. Trump, nor anyone else in his administration, has announced any conclusions about how Mr. Khashoggi died, or who bears responsibility for ordering the killing, a Washington Post editorial 

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Alastair Crooke

Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat, and founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum.

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The Saudi-Israeli Alliance Against Iran, Two Major Middle East Projects Are About to Collide

Israel has ineluctably allied itself with Saudi Arabia and Sunni Islam. So too, the US has taken Israel’s and Saudi’s partisan position against Iran. Both have their shoulders behind the Saudi king’s back – pushing him into leading a hybrid war against his powerful neighbor.

The Saudi-Israeli Alliance Against Iran, Two Major Middle East Projects Are About to Collide

Out from the ashes of the two mega projects of this expiring decade – i.e. the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) attempted Mideast take-over, and, contrarily, the Gulf project to rupture the MB - and to reconstitute hereditary, tribal absolutism (the ‘Arab System’) - two different oppositional ventures are arising. They are gaining greater mass and

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Alastair Crooke

Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat, and founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum.

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As Trump ‘Goes Nuclear’ Against Iran and China, What’s Next?

President Trump, it appears, intends to ‘go nuclear’ against China, against Iran – and (who knows), perhaps Germany too.

As Trump ‘Goes Nuclear’ Against Iran and China, What’s Next?

At least it is clear; it’s explicit. The “We’re America, Bitch” formulation by an American official strips away the humbug of soft power. It’s not about ‘democracy’ or

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Alastair Crooke

Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat, and founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum.

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It’s the Beginning of the End of the Bilderberg Era

Like him or hate him, President Trump has played a major part, if only by saying the unsayable.

It’s the Beginning of the End of the Bilderberg Era

The beginning of the end of the Bilderberg/Soros vision is in sight. The Old Order will cling on, even to the last of its fingernails. The Bilderberg vision is the notion of multi-cultural, international cosmopolitanism that surpasses old-time nationalism; heralding the end of frontiers; and leading toward a US-led, ‘technocratic’, global economic

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Alastair Crooke

Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat, and founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum.

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America’s Sanctions Are Pushing the World Towards Multipolarism

The radical utilitarianism evident when Trump says that Jong Un will be “safer, happier and richer” if he accepts Trump’s ultimatum reflects precisely the shallow materialism, on which the global political tide has turned

America’s Sanctions Are Pushing the World Towards Multipolarism

The commemorative medal had already been cast and published. It depicts profiles of Trump and Jong Un, facing each other, at the 12th June historic meeting - at which Jong Un was supposed to disavow and discard his nuclear armament, irreversibly, and then to accept Trump’s gracious benediction. The meeting now is moot (and, since drafting, has been

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Alastair Crooke

Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat, and founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum.

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