Flashpoints Around the World

FOX News National Security Analyst KT McFarland gave an engaging talk about several foreign policy “hot spots” around the world that most threaten the United States. Speaking to Conservative Women’s Network attendees this month, KT spoke extensively about what she believes are the three top issues in foreign policy today: the Arab Spring, Iran, and Israel.

The Arab Spring, begun in Egypt earlier this past summer, has become an unstable environment that radical groups, namely the Muslim Brotherhood, have begun to exploit. KT remarked that although the Arab Spring began rather optimistically, it has taken a serious turn for the worse. The Muslim Brotherhood has a history of violence and serves as a “mothership for Al Qaeda,” according to KT. This kind of rule would not be compatible with democracy and would only lead to further instability in the region.

KT noted that Iran is also the country that is most exploiting the Arab Spring movement. Iran has brazenly sent warships around Saudi Arabia, through the Suez, and into the Mediterranean as a show of force. "If they are this brazen without nukes," KT asked the audience, "how will they be when they have them?” A nuclear Iran would also pose a great threat to Israel and would result in other Middle East countries copying the technology to produce their own nuclear weapons. KT elaborated that this could lead to a nuclear arms race in one of the most unstable and anti-Western regions in the world.

The combination of the Arab Spring and the potential for a nuclear arms race in the Middle East leads to what KT listed as her 3rd major foreign policy issue: Israel. KT described to the audience how nuclear armed nations in the region would surround the nation of Israel and the fragile democracy and relationship between Israel and the Palestinians would be shattered, thus forcing the US to make a pivotal decision to act in aid of Israel or to sit out a defining conflict.

After a lively and engaging 30 minute presentation, KT opened the floor to questions and covered topics ranging from Pakistan and Iraq, to China’s expansion and the importance of cybersecurity.

A full video of this Conservative Women’s Network presentation will be available on our website within the next few days.