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  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    The Unprecedented Internal Displacement in Gaza

    Feb 14, 2024Kelsey Norman

    Conflicts always produce more internally displaced individuals than refugees. While there are approximately 32 million refugees worldwide, the number of intern…

  • Policy Analysis
    JordanRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    From Gaza to the Syrian Border, Jordan Is Increasingly in the Line of Fire  

    Feb 9, 2024Curtis Ryan

    Since Israel launched its current war on Gaza last October, Jordanians have been closely watching the enclave, and the rising tensions in the region, with deep…

  • Policy Analysis
    EgyptConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Egypt, the Gaza War, and Fears of Another Nakba

    Feb 7, 2024Charles W. Dunne

    Like most Arab countries, Egypt was stunned by the conflagration ignited by last October’s Hamas attack inside southern Israel and subsequent Israeli onslaught…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy

    How the Gaza War Is Upending US Middle East Policy

    Feb 2, 2024Patricia Karam

    As the Israel-Hamas war threatens to pull the United States into a broader conflict that would potentially upend US standing and policy, peace and stability in…

  • Policy Analysis
    YemenUS Foreign Policy

    From Gaza to Yemen and Back: The Biden Administration’s Confused Strategy

    Feb 1, 2024Nabeel A. Khoury

    On January 17, the Biden administration announced it was adding Yemen’s Houthis (also called Ansar Allah) to the US terrorist list. The move returned the rebel…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelMedia and Technology

    Gaza as Ground Zero for Israel’s Border Technology

    Feb 1, 2024Heba Gowayed

    More than a node in a global system of border apartheid, Gaza has become ground zero for Israel’s carceral and military technology that is marketed to other st…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy

    The Sunday Talk Shows on Gaza: A Study in Media Bias

    Jan 31, 2024William L. Youmans

    That the American public is not regarded as especially well-informed when it comes to international affairs is conventional wisdom among the US political and n…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    The Occupied West Bank Since October 7: Movement Restrictions and Collective Punishment

    Jan 26, 2024Yara M. Asi

    In August 2023, Itamar Ben-Gvir—not just any government minister, but Israel’s Minister of National Security—told an interviewer that “my right, the right of m…

  • Viewpoint
    LebanonConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Continuing Skirmishes but No Hezbollah-Israel War

    Jan 25, 2024Imad K. Harb

    Daily and intense skirmishes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah and its allies across the Blue Line—in reference to the border drawn by the United Nations fo…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Iran Between Managing Allies and Modulating Its Deterrence

    Jan 25, 2024Daniel Brumberg

    This is a bad time for Iran to become embroiled in an expanding regional war that pits the Islamic Republic and its allies in Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen against …

  • Policy Analysis
    YemenUS Foreign Policy

    The Biden Administration Is Strong in the Red Sea but Weak in Gaza

    Jan 24, 2024Gregory Aftandilian

    After enduring weeks of regional tension, including Houthi rebel attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and on American commercial vessels, the Biden administratio…

  • Viewpoint
    Palestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy

    Deciphering Blinken’s Unguarded Optimism

    Jan 18, 2024Khalil E. Jahshan

    The Biden administration announced its first Middle East initiative of the new year on January 4, 2024, by dispatching Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the…

  • Policy Analysis
    Regional Implications and Geopolitics

    Turkey’s “Guarantor System” for Ending the Gaza War Has Limitations

    Jan 17, 2024Ali Bakir

    In mid-October, following the UN Security Council’s failure to pass a Russian resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza, Turkey proposed a…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Normalization Survives Despite the Gaza War

    Jan 11, 2024Imad K. Harb

    The current Israeli war on Gaza, now well into its fourth deadly month, has cast a calamitous shadow over the lives of Palestinians and Israelis, as well as ov…

  • Policy Analysis
    The Arab WorldRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Important Considerations for the Middle East in 2024

    Jan 10, 2024Yara M. Asi Daniel Brumberg Imad K. Harb Khalil E. Jahshan Tamara Kharroub Laurie King Dana El Kurd Yousef Munayyer

    The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip will play a major role in shaping what unfolds in the Middle East in 20…

  • Policy Analysis
    OmanRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Oman, Gaza, and Relations with the United States

    Jan 5, 2024Giorgio Cafiero

    The Sultanate of Oman traditionally has maintained a low profile on the international stage while conducting a friends-of-all foreign policy based on moderatio…

  • Policy Analysis
    Regional Relations and Geopolitics

    The Far East Pivots to the Middle East 

    Jan 3, 2024Nabeel A. Khoury

    The phrase “Pivot to the East,” popularized during the Obama administration, signified a realization of the rising importance of China and of growing US intere…

  • Viewpoint
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Arouri’s Assassination Will Achieve Nothing

    Jan 3, 2024Imad K. Harb

    In its pursuit of Hamas leaders, an Israeli drone has assassinated Saleh al-Arouri, the Deputy Chairman of Hamas’s Political Bureau, a senior official in the o…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Russia and China on Gaza: Sidelined, Lurking—or Winning?

    Dec 22, 2023Charles W. Dunne

    It wasn’t that long ago that Russia and China seemed to dominate the Middle East, and the United States was on the brink of relegation to the sidelines.Russia …

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy

    The Israel-Hamas War in American Politics

    Dec 21, 2023Gregory Aftandilian

    Any rational discourse in the United States about the Israel-Hamas war increasingly has been subject to political litmus tests, as Israel supporters and Republ…

  • Policy Analysis
    LebanonConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Lebanon’s Political Forces Oppose a War with Israel

    Dec 20, 2023Patricia Karam

    With a heightened risk of the Gaza war spilling over into Lebanon, currently mired in acute political, economic, and social crises, the country’s politicians v…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelInternational Law

    The Case for Prosecuting Israel for Genocide in Gaza

    Dec 14, 2023Jonathan Kuttab

    The current Israeli war on Gaza has given rise to questions about whether it is possible to invoke the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Shifting the Paradigm: The One-State Solution as a Path to Peace

    Dec 14, 2023Samer Elchahabi

    The current round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, marked by the deaths of some 1,200 people in Israel and more than 18,000 Palestinians in Gaza, as well as th…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Criminal Injustice in the “Court of Occupation”: Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails

    Dec 13, 2023Yara M. Asi

    Ahed Tamimi was just 16 when she was first arrested by Israel, after kicking and shoving two Israeli soldiers who raided her village in the occupied West Bank …

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy

    Are Israel and the United States on a Collision Course?

    Dec 13, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    In a December 8 story that seems to have received little attention in western press coverage of Israel’s expanding military campaign in Gaza was this nugget of…

  • Policy Analysis
    LevantIdentity Politics and Sectarianization

    Is Anti-Zionism a Form of Anti-Semitism?

    Dec 9, 2023Azmi Bishara

    A bipartisan group of House members proposed HR 6578, that, if passed, would create a “Commission to Study Acts of Antisemitism in the United States.” This com…

  • Viewpoint
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Expand the Arab Peace Initiative to Increase Its Chances of Success

    Dec 7, 2023Rami G. Khouri

    Some in the Arab region and the international community seem to expect that after the Israeli war on Gaza and the destruction of most life systems in the Strip…

  • Policy Analysis
    EgyptConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Egypt Muddles Through the Crisis in Gaza

    Dec 6, 2023Imad K. Harb

    Egypt has considered the Gaza Strip to be a soft underbelly since it ruled it prior to 1967, but also after it regained control of the Sinai Peninsula from Isr…

  • Policy Analysis
    YemenConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Assessing Yemen as a Second Front in the Gaza War

    Nov 30, 2023Nabeel A. Khoury

    On November 19, Yemen’s Houthis hijacked a cargo ship indirectly linked to Israel as it was traveling in the Red Sea. Much like their firing of missiles toward…

  • Policy Analysis
    TurkeyRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Erdoğan, Gaza, and Turkey’s Regional Reconciliation

    Nov 30, 2023Salim Çevik

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's first statements following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli war on the Gaza Strip were …

  • Policy Analysis
    IranRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Hamas’s “Al-Aqsa Flood” Challenges Iran’s Axis of Resistance

    Nov 27, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    While the Biden administration, with Qatar’s support, has succeeded in securing a deal with Israel and Hamas for a combat “pause,” it remains to be seen if thi…

  • Policy Analysis
    The Arabian Peninsula and The GulfRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    GCC States and the War on Gaza: Positions, Perceptions, and Interests

    Nov 22, 2023Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

    The war on Gaza has for all intents and purposes reinstated the centrality of the Palestinian issue to the regional and international politics of the Middle Ea…

  • External Readings
    Palestine/IsraelEnergy and Economics

    Israel’s Central Bank Governor Tries to Assure International Markets

    Nov 21, 2023Barhoum Jaraisi

    Last October, at a conference of the International Monetary Fund in the United States, the Governor of the Central Bank of Israel Amir Yaron sought to reassure…

  • Viewpoint
    LebanonConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Hezbollah Reluctantly Awaits Israel’s Decision on War

    Nov 17, 2023Imad K. Harb

    The frontline on the Lebanese-Israeli border continues to witness the real skirmishes of an undeclared war between Israel and Hezbollah. Reciprocal attacks bet…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy

    Gaza, the Ruin of US Policy, and a Transformed Middle East

    Nov 16, 2023Charles W. Dunne

    The Biden administration must act quickly and offer specific plans and timelines to shape post-conflict expectations and establish its priorities with the part…

  • Policy Analysis
    LevantUS Foreign Policy

    US Military Presence in the Middle East: Deterrence and Retaliation

    Nov 14, 2023Gregory Aftandilian

    The United States has recently bolstered its military presence in the Middle East as the Israeli war on Gaza escalated. Bolstering this presence is meant to de…

  • Policy Analysis
    SyriaRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Does Syria Have a Role in the Israel-Hamas Conflict?

    Nov 6, 2023Patricia Karam

    As the war between Israel and Hamas rages, the Middle East is bracing for a wider, multi-front regional conflict that will have serious repercussions for the g…

  • Viewpoint
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Nasrallah Steers Clear of War

    Nov 3, 2023Imad K. Harb

    Where is Hezbollah and its General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah? This was a natural refrain over almost the last four weeks, voiced by many observers and partisa…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Jordan Sees the War on Gaza in Existential Terms

    Nov 2, 2023Curtis Ryan

    Like other countries in the Middle East and around the world, Jordan has been rocked to its very core by the devastating news about the Gaza Strip and the late…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Gaza and the Harbingers of Future Conflict

    Oct 30, 2023Nabeel A. Khoury

    The shock of civilian deaths in the latest Israel-Hamas conflagration is both a marker and a warning. It is a marker because for the first time Palestinians to…

  • Viewpoint
    Palestine/IsraelGlobal Health and Health Policy

    Palestinians Are Denied Humanity, Even after Death

    Oct 30, 2023Yara M. Asi

    On October 25, 2023, US President Joe Biden made the stunning and unprecedented statement that he had “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are us…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelGlobal Health and Health Policy

    “An Open-Air Graveyard”: The Unfolding Health Catastrophe in the Gaza Strip

    Oct 27, 2023Yara M. Asi

    It is impossible to count the number of reports, studies, press releases, and statements that have reported the unbearable conditions of life for Palestinians …

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelInternational Law

    Israel, Gaza, and the Laws of War

    Oct 27, 2023Jonathan Kuttab

    Addressing his troops as they amass to attack the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant publicly announced that the new Israeli war cabinet, wh…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    The Preliminary Fallout of the War on Gaza

    Oct 26, 2023Mada al-Carmel

    On the morning of Saturday, October 7, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) launched a surprise attack on Israel, targeting a string of military and civilia…

  • Policy Analysis
    LevantRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Erdoǧan’s Calculations as the Israel-Gaza Conflict Escalates

    Oct 25, 2023Mustafa Gurbuz

    On October 20, during Friday prayers at the historic Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul, Ali Erbas, the head of Turkey's state-run religious affairs directorate, …

  • Policy Analysis
    LevantConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Will Saudi Arabia Renew the “Arab Peace Initiative” as the Middle East Seethes?

    Oct 23, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    Whether Hamas’s October 7 assault has ended whatever prospects existed for forging diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia remains to be seen. The…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy

    The War on Gaza: Deterrence or Inching toward Direct US Involvement?

    Oct 17, 2023Khalil E. Jahshan

    The official American position has passed through three phases in less than ten days. First, like Israel itself, Washington and its western allies suffered fro…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    On the Limits of Iran’s Policy of “Maximum Tactical Flexibility”

    Oct 13, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    At some point, the tactical balls Tehran has been juggling could fall to the ground with unpredictable or dangerous strategic results.

  • Viewpoint
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    The Unlikelihood of a Hezbollah-Israel War

    Oct 13, 2023Imad K. Harb

    As Israel turns to punish the Gaza Strip and its people for the Hamas attack on October 7, speculation arises as to whether the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation will …

  • Viewpoint
    Palestine/IsraelMedia and Technology

    Disinformation and Hate Speech on Social Media Contribute to Inciting War Crimes Against Gaza

    Oct 13, 2023Tamara Kharroub

    During major events like violent conflict, there is a vacuum of verified and accurate information, as well as high interest and emotions. As the fog of war and…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Saudi-Israeli Normalization and the Hamas Attack

    Oct 11, 2023Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

    When Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) sat down on September 20 with Brett Baier of Fox News for his first English-language television inter…