>***** Afghanistan: As Bad as Its Reputation?
>
>Middle East Quarterly 7, no. 3 (September 2000)
Back when the Taliban were a force for stability, and not the face of Evil.
>By Michael Rubin, visiting fellow
>The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Charles Krauthammer's favorite thinktank on the Middle East. And no wonder!
>Every four years, the Institute convenes its Presidential Study
>Group - a bipartisan, blue-ribbon commission charged with drafting a
>blueprint for the next Administration's Middle East policy.
>
>* The 2000 Presidential Study Group included the most senior
>advisors to the two major presidential candidates. In its final
>report, Navigating through Turbulence: America and the Middle East
>in a New Century, this fifty-two-member commission presented its
>recommendations on Middle East policy to President George W. Bush at
>a time of renewed tension in the Arab-Israeli peace process and
>heightened anxiety about the rampant proliferation of weapons of
>mass destruction.
>
>* In 1996, the forty-member Study Group was led by Robert Satloff
>and Amb. Samuel Lewis and included Jeane Kirkpatrick, Sen. Joseph
>Lieberman, Alexander Haig, Max Kampelman, and R. James Woolsey.
>Their report, Building for Security and Peace in the Middle East,
>played a key role in shaping Middle East policy during the Clinton
>administration's second term, particularly its approach to Iraq,
>Iran, and the Arab-Israeli peace process.
>
>* In 1992, the Institute hosted a commission on U.S.-Israeli
>relations. Eleven signatories to the group's final report, Enduring
>Partnership, were named to senior positions in the Clinton
>Administration, including National Security Advisor Anthony Lake, UN
>Ambassador Madeleine Albright, Undersecretary of Commerce Stuart
>Eizenstat, and the late Les Aspin.
>
>* The 1988 Study Group was chaired by Walter Mondale and Lawrence
>Eagleburger. Its final report, Building for Peace, was a key
>planning document for the Bush Administration, and six Study Group
>members went on to senior government positions.
Doug