Any thoughts then on what should be done here? If they are all separate issues, should they be considered totally separate, or separately, but within a whole policy?
waaayyyy too complex question to answer quickly or concisely. ideally, of course, you come up with a combination of approaches tailored to each individual situation but linked together under some common and coherent general framework (as carranza thinks the Bushies are doing<g>). But that's far more easily said than done, and in the real world you generally never get close to that.
For an example of just how complex these kinds of problems are, and how they are linked together in ways that make them even more difficult to solve, I'd suggest taking a look at Ken Pollack's piece in the new FA on post-Saddam Persian Gulf security. Here you have a top professional with a wealth of experience and no apparent axe to grind politically, tackling a few (but by no means all) of the Mideast's problems, and even he can't come up with all that much to suggest. Read, absorb, mull: it's the kind of piece that should make one a bit more humble in offering advice, and bit more understanding the next time the region goes all to hell...
foreignaffairs.org
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