Publications

The signing of a joint trilateral statement by senior national security officials from Saudi Arabia and Iran in the presence of Chinese officials in Beijing on…

In the closing scene of the 1942 film Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart, walking off into the fog with his occasional nemesis as they plan their next move together, …

Nothing so perfectly expresses the failure of nation-building in Iraq as the cry of protesters in 2019, when they chanted, nureed watan, “we want a country.” T…

While the central role that China recently played in renewing diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia underscores the United States’ declining influ…

Reducing US commitments in the Middle East and pivoting to Asia has been a hot topic among foreign policy analysts and Middle East experts since the idea was p…

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is 83 years old. And while he has lived long enough to see the 44th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, the s…

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, who was sworn in on October 27, 2022, has nearly completed the first 100 days of his tenure. In this short perio…

The positions taken by many governments in the Middle East have proven a notable exception to the global groundswell of support for Kyiv.

Iraq is defying its reputation and fighting against all odds in its attempt to depoliticize its regional image through the use of soccer. Between January 6 and…

New challenges abound for President Joe Biden in 2023. The loss of a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives for the 118th Congress promises to lea…

In November, Americans went to the polls to cast their votes in the congressional midterm elections. In the end, voters dealt a major blow to Republican party …

Despite the support that Iraq’s new prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, has received from pro-Iran factions in the Iraqi Parliament, he is likely to purs…

Oman is making gradual progress in the area of women’s rights. Women in Oman are voting, running for office, and serving in ministerial positions. Opportunitie…

Twelve months of high drama in Iraqi politics finally ended on October 27, with the investiture of a new government headed by Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani. Two wee…

One of the keys to understanding the Islamic Republic of Iran is that despite the regime’s still formidable grip on power, its ruling elite believe that the re…

Voters in Kuwait went to the polls on September 29 to elect a new National Assembly in what was the country’s ninth general election in 16 years and the sixth …

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, have been widely used in recent armed conflicts, particularly in the Middle East. Their low cost and…

To adapt the famous opening line of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, it may be said that while all states are paradoxical, every state is paradoxical in its own wa…

Head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization Hakan Fidan’s recent visit to Baghdad was an attempt to heal wounds that were opened during a diplomatic ro…

Iraqi politicians have repeatedly failed to form a government in the eleven months that have passed since the country’s October 2021 elections, in large part d…

Over the past decade, the amphetamine fenethylline, widely known by the brand name Captagon, has increasingly become the drug of choice among the youth in Gulf…

What a difference a few days can make in the Middle East. On August 28 National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby addressed the diplomatic maneuvering t…

As more and more western universities set up branch campuses in Gulf Arab states, many women are finding themselves with greater opportunities than ever before…

It will probably never be known whether the 24-year-old Lebanese American man who repeatedly stabbed world-renowned author Salman Rushdie on August 12 acted wi…

Iraq’s political deadlock has grown more intense and complex in recent months. The stalemate that has reigned since the re-election of Speaker of Parliament Mo…

Rend Al-Rahim discusses the latest events in Iraqi politics, including the Sadrist Movement’s political maneuvering and its incitement of street protests that …

The cities of the Arabian Gulf are presented as the epitome of the hypermodern urban environment. Skyscrapers made of concrete, steel, and glass shimmer in the…

Now that President Joe Biden has completed his trip to the Middle East, his administration will likely make one last bid to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, …

The paths of US President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) crossed briefly on July 15 and 16 when Biden stopped in Jeddah, Saudi Arab…

With President Joe Biden concluding his Middle East visit, many in the United States are left wondering what tangible benefits the American people gained as a …

In recent years, Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan have come together to form a sort of alliance based on shared security, political, and economic interests. Since 2019,…

Iraqi politicians’ continued failure to form a functioning government calls for a reexamination of the country’s current political system, al-muhasasa al-ta'if…

Despite the declining capacity of the United States to shape the Middle East’s strategic architecture, it is unlikely that effective regional solutions to secu…

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan did not hide his main demand when he buried the case of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who was killed o…

Reports that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may be planning to visit Turkey as part of an international trip in June, one of his first outside …

The surprise resignation of Yemeni President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi in early April and his immediate replacement by an eight-member Presidential Leadership Coun…

While the Islamic Republic of Iran undoubtedly uses cyberspace for censorship and surveillance of its citizens, including cyber warfare to damage information s…

In its unfolding bid to expand ties with Middle East governments, Israel must grapple with a basic challenge: how to ensure that events in the Palestinian-Isra…

On April 4, 2022, Gulf Arab countries pledged $22 billion to help Egypt avert a currency crisis resulting from the Russian war on Ukraine. The Egyptian pound l…

Zeidon Alkinani argues that the current political deadlock in Iraq in choosing a president and a prime minister is fueled by intra-group competitions in the Sh…

In Iraq’s parliamentary elections last October, the Sadrist Movement led by the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr emerged as the largest bloc with 73 seats. Its clos…

In the eyes of an observant analyst, “While it is customary to characterize Hezbollah as a ‘state within a state,’ it is more accurate now to define it as a ‘s…

The ongoing military conflict between Israel and Iran (along with Iran-backed Shia forces like Hezbollah) in Syria show no signs of easing despite the Russia-U…

The Gulf Arab states practiced an almost unified approach to post–2003 Iraq, which was generally derived from their established alliance following the 1990–199…

The six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council have responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine according to their interests and preferences. While the fig…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has produced some unusual bedfellows, the strangest of whom are Iran and Israel. Perhaps the term “bedfellows” is an exaggeration,…

The latest escalation in Yemen, particularly the cross-border rocket fire by the Ansar Allah militia (the Houthis) and the retaliatory aerial bombardment by th…

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoğlu’s official call to his Israeli counterpart was a rarity since the Erdoğan-Peres confrontation in Davos in January 200…

Zeidon Alkinani discusses the rivalry between Iraq’s main Kurdish parties—the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)—and i…

This is likely to be Turkey’s year of normalization with regional counterparts, as 2021 was one of diplomatic restoration for Turkish foreign policy. While in …

Daniel Brumberg disentangles the complications arising from the current tensions between Ukraine and Russia and their impact on US-Russian relations as well as…

Major changes to the Iraqi political scene are awaiting the formation of a new government following the results of the early parliamentary election that took p…

A combination of offensive military actions by the Houthi rebels and stalled peace talks to try to end the civil war in Yemen have changed the way the United S…

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) toured the five smaller Gulf states between December 6, when he visited Oman, and December 10, when he arr…