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A recent U.S. National Intelligence Council report suggests Egypt has lost its superior status among Arab states, and that leadership in the Middle East is passing to Saudi Arabia despite the kingdom's efforts to avoid it. The study, "Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan: Policies on Regional Issues and Support for U.S. Goals in the Middle East," is based on a workshop held last summer, but was released only in December, after U.S. President Barack Obama was elected and senior intelligence officials in his administration took office. The National Intelligence Council describes itself as a center for midterm and long-term strategic thinking within the U.S. intelligence community. It is subordinate to the Director of National Intelligence, and provides intelligence estimates to the president and senior decision makers on foreign policy issues. While the council is a government agency, the report emphasizes it does not necessarily reflect the administration's foreign policy....

Barack Obama is fighting his first major political battle with the US congress over the gargantuan economic stimulus plan. While eventual passage of some version of the plan seems certain, Republicans are seeking to inflict maximum political damage on the new president and his ascendant Democratic party. Obama opened with an appeal for bipartisanship, seeking out Republicans in their lair on Capitol Hill, asking for their ideas, even wining and dining them at a SuperBowl football party. But Republicans in the House of Representatives spurned his overtures, unanimously turning up their noses at the stimulus plan. Culture War politics Senate Republicans have successfully seized on parts of the package they could portray as frivolous or wasteful - such as $50m in funding for the arts. The arts gambit is a good example of the old Culture War politics that Republicans have used effectively in the past. They seek to convince ordinary, gun-toting, 'Joe-SixPack' Americans that Obama wa...

Former president Pervez Musharraf has been offered a job in Washington as scholar-in-residence on Pakistan at the prestigious Middle East Institute. Musharraf, who arrived in the US earlier this month for a lecture tour, spent three days last week in Washington and attended a reception hosted by the Middle East Institute. The Institute's head, former US Ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlain, urged Musharraf, a former commando, to be the next Scholar-in-Residence on Pakistan. The Middle East Institute is willing to create a special Pakistan chair should Musharraf accept the offer, The Dawn newspaper reported today. Sources close to Musharraf said the former military ruler "seems interested in the offer, which will give him the chance to write another book on his experience as the head of a country considered key to US security". Only a few Pakistanis were invited to the reception hosted by the Middle East Institute. Musharraf did not address the gathering and the...