Martin Indyk, of the Brookings Institute and numerous other institutions of repute, and the equally credentialed Gary Samore of the Council on Foreign Relations co-directed a research initiative called Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President. You can read summaries of their work from Brookings here and from CFR here, or purchase it from Brookings here. From what my cursory reading of the summaries tells me, they focused on the big-ticket items: reconciliation and rebuilding in Iraq, defrosting diplomatic relations and stifling nuclear ambitions in Iran, resolving the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, and combating Islamic terrorism. Numerous scholars from both institutes (and possibly outside) contributed, so I am not sure whether they advanced a philosophical strategy for the region or simply stuck to policy recommendations for the individual challenges. I’m wondering whether it would be better NOT to advance a broad doctrine with respect to the Middle East … should each of these issues be treated individually? My thought is no, they are all related and need to be understood as such. School responsibilities are between me and perusing the reports, but my thoughts will be up here when I do.