Mark N Katz | George Mason University (original) (raw)

Mark N. Katz is a professor of government and politics at George Mason University. He earned a B.A. in international relations from the University of California at Riverside in 1976, an M.A. in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in 1978, and a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982.

Before starting to teach at George Mason University in 1988, he was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution (1980-81), held a temporary appointment as a Soviet affairs analyst at the U.S. Department of State (1982), was a Rockefeller Foundation international relations fellow (1982-84), and was both a Kennan Institute/Wilson Center research scholar (1985) and research associate (1985-87). He has also received a U.S. Institute of Peace fellowship (1989-90) and grant (1994-95), and several Earhart Foundation fellowship research grants.

He has been a visiting scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (Riyadh, May 2001), the Hokkaido University Slavic Research Center (Sapporo, June-July 2007), the Higher School of Economics (Moscow, March 2010), and the Middle East Policy Council (Washington, DC, September 2010-January 2011). Since March 2016, he has been a non-resident fellow at The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

He is the author of The Third World in Soviet Military Thought (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), Russia and Arabia: Soviet Foreign Policy toward the Arabian Peninsula (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), Gorbachev's Military Policy in the Third World (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1989), Revolutions and Revolutionary Waves (St. Martin's Press, 1997), Reflections on Revolutions (St. Martin's Press, 1999), and Leaving without Losing: The War on Terror after Iraq and Afghanistan (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012).

Links to his recent articles can be found on www.marknkatz.com

less

Uploads

Papers by Mark N Katz

The November 2006 Congressional elections made clear that a majority of the American voters no lo... more The November 2006 Congressional elections made clear that a majority of the American voters no longer support the war in Iraq. The Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and former Congressman Lee Hamilton, set forth a bipartisan plan to withdraw U.S. forces through first training and then turning responsibility for security over to the armed forces of Iraq's elected government.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The great-power system has been in constant change since the end of the Cold War. The US became t... more The great-power system has been in constant change since the end of the Cold War. The US became the hegemonic power, and under its shelter, the European Union was able to transform into a European-wide political body. Soon, a group of leading regional powers started to question the universalist aspirations of the Western-led international order. Two members of this club in particular were not satisfied with the role of a regional hegemon and had more global ambitions. China has already become the largest trading nation globally, and Chinese foreign policy has assumed an assertive tone. China has both the potential to challenge US hegemony, as well as the political will to use it. Russia’s project to achieve a global great-power status, on the other hand, is inspired by its historical identity and its alleged humiliation by the West after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia longs for recognition of its great-power status in particular from the US. This report focuses on relation...

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

From 2004 to 2007, relations between Russia and Qatar went from extremely poor to remarkably coop... more From 2004 to 2007, relations between Russia and Qatar went from extremely poor to remarkably cooperative. How did this happen? Considering that Russia and Qatar are both among the world’s three largest producers of natural gas (the third being Iran), what does this Russian-Qatari rapprochement portend? Even early on in the Putin era, there was recognition in Moscow that Russia could benefit from cooperating with Qatar in the oil and gas spheres. Moscow also hoped to sell arms to Qatar as well as to boost trade and investment ties with the country. The visit of the emir of Qatar, Shaykh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to Moscow and his meeting with Putin in December 2001 raised expectations for increased Russian-Qatari cooperation. There was even talk of Russia and Qatar working together to create a “gas OPEC [Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries].” None of these prospects for Russian-Qatari cooperation, however, were fulfilled—at least not then. There were also important dif...

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

During the period of the Cold War, both the U.S. and the USSR demonstrated repeatedly their capac... more During the period of the Cold War, both the U.S. and the USSR demonstrated repeatedly their capacity to become involved in and exacerbate many conflicts in the Third World. Indeed, superpower involvement in these conflicts, ranging from supplying arms to fullfledged military intervention, was one of the most active and dynamic elements of their overall competition. During the period of Mikhail Gorbachev's primacy, Soviet-American competition in the Third World was greatly reduced, if not completely eliminated. Under Gorbachev, the U.S. and the USSR achieved an unprecedented degree of mutual cooperation with regard to several regional conflicts, including those in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Central America, southern Africa, and the Persian Gulf. With the generally peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union and the establishment of democracy in Russia and other republics in 1991, RussianAmerican cooperation in all areas, including the Third World, is likely to increase. Yet despite the end ...

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Russian-U.S. relations had been growing extremely acrimonious over the Bush administration's ... more Russian-U.S. relations had been growing extremely acrimonious over the Bush administration's plan to defend against a possible Iranian missile attack by deploying 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a tracking station in the Czech Republic. The Kremlin argued that this could become the basis of a larger missile defense system in Eastern Europe aimed at Russia. The Bush administration, though, was not willing to back down from this plan for the sake of preventing the further deterioration of Russian-American relations. Putin's offer of the Russian radar installation in Azerbaijan as part of a joint Russian-American ballistic system, by contrast, is an attempt at just this -as well as an effort to prevent the United States from creating such a system that Moscow finds objectionable in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Some light has finally been shed on the mystery of who will lead Russia after the expiration of V... more Some light has finally been shed on the mystery of who will lead Russia after the expiration of Vladimir Putin's second term as president in 2008. Putin has long pledged that he will honor the Russian constitution's limit of serving only two four-year terms in this post. Uncertainty has abounded about who would succeed him and what that person's policy preferences would be, or whether Putin would alter the constitution (which he could easily do) in order to serve a third term.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Current History, 2004

Russian foreign policy-makers seem convinced that playing both sides against the middle with othe... more Russian foreign policy-makers seem convinced that playing both sides against the middle with other nations is a clever way to advance Moscow's interests. It may take many more foreign policy setbacks before they are persuaded otherwise.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Current History, 2005

The expansion of Pakistani-Russian ties to include a significant arms relationship appears to dep... more The expansion of Pakistani-Russian ties to include a significant arms relationship appears to depend on a deterioration in the Russian-Indian relationship that Moscow will not initiate and desperately wants to avoid.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Middle East Policy, 2018

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Middle East Policy, 2017

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The Middle East Journal, 2010

their analysis and examine it in context. Thoughtful, in-depth analysis is not generally encourag... more their analysis and examine it in context. Thoughtful, in-depth analysis is not generally encouraged. As a result, the IC is often unable to see the forest through the trees. Jervis suggests that the IC could address this issue by adopting a more academic approach. In particular, he advocates a system of peer review that would challenge analysts to marshal their evidence in a systematic way and defend their positions. Jervis does have a tendency to veer into “a rather sterile exegesis of texts” in his Iran post mortem, as one of his IC critics points out (p. 117). In addition, his emphasis on the applicability of academic models for intelligence analysis is at times overstated. However, these minor criticisms should in no way detract from Jervis’ overall achievement. Why Intelligence Fails is a thoughtful and compelling new look at the problems associated with intelligence analysis and reform.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Asia Times Online, 2004

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The Soviet and Post Soviet Review, 1996

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 00396339008442505, Mar 3, 2008

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

World Affairs, 2007

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

World Affairs, 2006

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

SAIS Review, 1998

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Asia Policy, 2014

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

familiar with the contradictions of modernday Iran. Once again, she merges the personal and polit... more familiar with the contradictions of modernday Iran. Once again, she merges the personal and political and depicts a country that bears little resemblance to the stereotypes conveyed by the “Axis of Evil” moniker. In Moaveni’s Tehran, she and her fiancé live together openly before marriage, and she attends government-mandated prenuptial classes where young women are told that “you must also derive pleasure from sexual interactions” and are handed starter packets of birth control pills. “paradoxically,” she writes, “authoritarian laws had somehow made Iranian society more tolerant,” in matters of dress, religious observance, and class consciousness. Life seems more than tolerable as she plans her Tehran dream wedding in the garden of a villa owned by her prospective in-laws. Her husband, working for his family’s textile business, and Moaveni, churning out interesting articles for Time, seem determined to stick it out in Iran even as the relative social freedoms of the Muhammad Khatami era give way to the Neoconservatism of Mahmud Ahmadinejad. But the downsides of life in Iran never fully disappear and eventually prove unbearable. Ahmadinejad, after briefly trying to curry favor with women by announcing that they can attend mixed soccer games, retreats under pressure from conservative clerics and presides over a new crackdown on un-Islamic dress and satellite television. The Iranian government, reacting to the Bush Administration’s strident democracy campaign, begins locking up Iranian-American academics and censoring the press even more heavily. A government minder to whom Moaveni must periodically report — the mysterious “Mr. X” — threatens her with judicial proceedings if she continues to work. The apparent tipping point comes when she, her husband, and young son try to go for a walk in the foothills of the Alborz Mountains, only to be stopped by a female teenage morality enforcer who bars Moaveni on the grounds that her headscarf is too thin. Moaveni and her husband move to London, rejoining the great Iranian brain drain, which deprives Iran yearly of 150,000 university graduates seeking the opportunity and predictability that their homeland — three decades after the revolution — still cannot provide.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The November 2006 Congressional elections made clear that a majority of the American voters no lo... more The November 2006 Congressional elections made clear that a majority of the American voters no longer support the war in Iraq. The Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and former Congressman Lee Hamilton, set forth a bipartisan plan to withdraw U.S. forces through first training and then turning responsibility for security over to the armed forces of Iraq's elected government.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The great-power system has been in constant change since the end of the Cold War. The US became t... more The great-power system has been in constant change since the end of the Cold War. The US became the hegemonic power, and under its shelter, the European Union was able to transform into a European-wide political body. Soon, a group of leading regional powers started to question the universalist aspirations of the Western-led international order. Two members of this club in particular were not satisfied with the role of a regional hegemon and had more global ambitions. China has already become the largest trading nation globally, and Chinese foreign policy has assumed an assertive tone. China has both the potential to challenge US hegemony, as well as the political will to use it. Russia’s project to achieve a global great-power status, on the other hand, is inspired by its historical identity and its alleged humiliation by the West after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia longs for recognition of its great-power status in particular from the US. This report focuses on relation...

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

From 2004 to 2007, relations between Russia and Qatar went from extremely poor to remarkably coop... more From 2004 to 2007, relations between Russia and Qatar went from extremely poor to remarkably cooperative. How did this happen? Considering that Russia and Qatar are both among the world’s three largest producers of natural gas (the third being Iran), what does this Russian-Qatari rapprochement portend? Even early on in the Putin era, there was recognition in Moscow that Russia could benefit from cooperating with Qatar in the oil and gas spheres. Moscow also hoped to sell arms to Qatar as well as to boost trade and investment ties with the country. The visit of the emir of Qatar, Shaykh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to Moscow and his meeting with Putin in December 2001 raised expectations for increased Russian-Qatari cooperation. There was even talk of Russia and Qatar working together to create a “gas OPEC [Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries].” None of these prospects for Russian-Qatari cooperation, however, were fulfilled—at least not then. There were also important dif...

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

During the period of the Cold War, both the U.S. and the USSR demonstrated repeatedly their capac... more During the period of the Cold War, both the U.S. and the USSR demonstrated repeatedly their capacity to become involved in and exacerbate many conflicts in the Third World. Indeed, superpower involvement in these conflicts, ranging from supplying arms to fullfledged military intervention, was one of the most active and dynamic elements of their overall competition. During the period of Mikhail Gorbachev's primacy, Soviet-American competition in the Third World was greatly reduced, if not completely eliminated. Under Gorbachev, the U.S. and the USSR achieved an unprecedented degree of mutual cooperation with regard to several regional conflicts, including those in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Central America, southern Africa, and the Persian Gulf. With the generally peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union and the establishment of democracy in Russia and other republics in 1991, RussianAmerican cooperation in all areas, including the Third World, is likely to increase. Yet despite the end ...

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Russian-U.S. relations had been growing extremely acrimonious over the Bush administration's ... more Russian-U.S. relations had been growing extremely acrimonious over the Bush administration's plan to defend against a possible Iranian missile attack by deploying 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a tracking station in the Czech Republic. The Kremlin argued that this could become the basis of a larger missile defense system in Eastern Europe aimed at Russia. The Bush administration, though, was not willing to back down from this plan for the sake of preventing the further deterioration of Russian-American relations. Putin's offer of the Russian radar installation in Azerbaijan as part of a joint Russian-American ballistic system, by contrast, is an attempt at just this -as well as an effort to prevent the United States from creating such a system that Moscow finds objectionable in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Some light has finally been shed on the mystery of who will lead Russia after the expiration of V... more Some light has finally been shed on the mystery of who will lead Russia after the expiration of Vladimir Putin's second term as president in 2008. Putin has long pledged that he will honor the Russian constitution's limit of serving only two four-year terms in this post. Uncertainty has abounded about who would succeed him and what that person's policy preferences would be, or whether Putin would alter the constitution (which he could easily do) in order to serve a third term.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Current History, 2004

Russian foreign policy-makers seem convinced that playing both sides against the middle with othe... more Russian foreign policy-makers seem convinced that playing both sides against the middle with other nations is a clever way to advance Moscow's interests. It may take many more foreign policy setbacks before they are persuaded otherwise.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Current History, 2005

The expansion of Pakistani-Russian ties to include a significant arms relationship appears to dep... more The expansion of Pakistani-Russian ties to include a significant arms relationship appears to depend on a deterioration in the Russian-Indian relationship that Moscow will not initiate and desperately wants to avoid.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Middle East Policy, 2018

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Middle East Policy, 2017

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The Middle East Journal, 2010

their analysis and examine it in context. Thoughtful, in-depth analysis is not generally encourag... more their analysis and examine it in context. Thoughtful, in-depth analysis is not generally encouraged. As a result, the IC is often unable to see the forest through the trees. Jervis suggests that the IC could address this issue by adopting a more academic approach. In particular, he advocates a system of peer review that would challenge analysts to marshal their evidence in a systematic way and defend their positions. Jervis does have a tendency to veer into “a rather sterile exegesis of texts” in his Iran post mortem, as one of his IC critics points out (p. 117). In addition, his emphasis on the applicability of academic models for intelligence analysis is at times overstated. However, these minor criticisms should in no way detract from Jervis’ overall achievement. Why Intelligence Fails is a thoughtful and compelling new look at the problems associated with intelligence analysis and reform.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Asia Times Online, 2004

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The Soviet and Post Soviet Review, 1996

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 00396339008442505, Mar 3, 2008

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

World Affairs, 2007

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

World Affairs, 2006

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

SAIS Review, 1998

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Asia Policy, 2014

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

familiar with the contradictions of modernday Iran. Once again, she merges the personal and polit... more familiar with the contradictions of modernday Iran. Once again, she merges the personal and political and depicts a country that bears little resemblance to the stereotypes conveyed by the “Axis of Evil” moniker. In Moaveni’s Tehran, she and her fiancé live together openly before marriage, and she attends government-mandated prenuptial classes where young women are told that “you must also derive pleasure from sexual interactions” and are handed starter packets of birth control pills. “paradoxically,” she writes, “authoritarian laws had somehow made Iranian society more tolerant,” in matters of dress, religious observance, and class consciousness. Life seems more than tolerable as she plans her Tehran dream wedding in the garden of a villa owned by her prospective in-laws. Her husband, working for his family’s textile business, and Moaveni, churning out interesting articles for Time, seem determined to stick it out in Iran even as the relative social freedoms of the Muhammad Khatami era give way to the Neoconservatism of Mahmud Ahmadinejad. But the downsides of life in Iran never fully disappear and eventually prove unbearable. Ahmadinejad, after briefly trying to curry favor with women by announcing that they can attend mixed soccer games, retreats under pressure from conservative clerics and presides over a new crackdown on un-Islamic dress and satellite television. The Iranian government, reacting to the Bush Administration’s strident democracy campaign, begins locking up Iranian-American academics and censoring the press even more heavily. A government minder to whom Moaveni must periodically report — the mysterious “Mr. X” — threatens her with judicial proceedings if she continues to work. The apparent tipping point comes when she, her husband, and young son try to go for a walk in the foothills of the Alborz Mountains, only to be stopped by a female teenage morality enforcer who bars Moaveni on the grounds that her headscarf is too thin. Moaveni and her husband move to London, rejoining the great Iranian brain drain, which deprives Iran yearly of 150,000 university graduates seeking the opportunity and predictability that their homeland — three decades after the revolution — still cannot provide.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Contemporary analysis of all of the Kingdom's key foreign relations broken down by country or sub... more Contemporary analysis of all of the Kingdom's key foreign relations broken down by country or sub-region. This is ONLY available from commercial distributors.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Routledge Handbook of Russian Foreign Policy, 2018

Moscow’s military intervention in Syria, beginning in September 2015, marked a sharp break from t... more Moscow’s military intervention in Syria, beginning in September 2015, marked a sharp break from the much more reluctant, hesitant role that Russia had played in the region after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Not only was this Russia’s first post-Soviet military intervention outside the former USSR, but its relative success in shoring up the Assad regime stood in stark contrast to the results that the United States and its allies achieved through military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. This chapter will review the backdrop against which Russia’s political and military involvement in Syria took place and review its relations to the Greater Middle East. It will scrutinize in detail Moscow’s relations with selected countries in the region, which the authors deem to be crucial for post-Soviet Russia, and conclude with an outlook on key challenges, questions, and themes Russia will face in this region.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact