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- Policy Analysis
US Foreign PolicyWhat Trump’s Aid Cuts Mean for the Middle East and North Africa
Mar 21, 2025Amy HawthorneAlthough the Trump administration exempted Israel’s $3.3 billion and Egypt’s $1.3 billion in annual foreign military financing (FMF)—the majority of US assista…
- Policy Analysis
A New Opportunity for Palestinians in Syria
Mar 21, 2025In Syria under former President Hafez al-Assad, liberating Palestine at all costs was a regime slogan commensurate to freeing the Golan Heights of Israeli occu…
- Viewpoint
Timeline of the Recent Sectarian Strife on Syria’s Coast
Mar 19, 2025On March 6, loyalists to Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad attacked the new government’s troops in the coastal areas of Syria where Assad’s Alawite sect…
- Policy Analysis
Israel’s Center-Right and Leftist Parties Have Always Supported Displacing Gaza’s Palestinians
Mar 12, 2025IntroductionDuring his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 4, US President Donald Trump announced a plan to displace the residen…
- Policy Analysis
TurkeyDemocracy and GovernanceA New Phase in Turkey’s Kurdish Conflict: Ocalan’s Call and Its Implications
Mar 12, 2025Salim ÇevikOn February 27, 2025, Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), made a historic call, through a letter, for the organizatio…
- Viewpoint
Trump Sidesteps Congress, Giving Billions to Israel
Mar 7, 2025For the second time in six weeks, the Trump administration has bypassed Congress to send Israel billions of dollars of weaponry. Continued US military support …
- Policy Analysis
IraqEnergy and EconomicsGeopolitical Dynamics Surrounding Iraq’s Ambitious Development Road Project
Mar 5, 2025Giorgio CafieroLeveraging its geography and resources to serve as an economic bridge between Asia and Europe is not a new concept for Iraq. In the 1980s, the country promoted…
- Research Paper
The Beautification of War: Digital Communications, Public Indifference, Rebel Journalism, and Civilian Resistance in the Age of Meta Wars
Mar 3, 2025Digital communications technologies are nowadays enabling not only frightening transformations of the modes and weapons of warfare but also, paradoxically, med…
- Policy Analysis
EgyptUS Foreign PolicyTrump’s Favorite Dictator Feels the Heat
Feb 28, 2025Imad K. HarbUS President Donald Trump appears to have developed different ideas about Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi upon whom he bestowed the moniker “favorite d…
- Policy Analysis
The Lessons from Gaza Manifest in the West Bank: Israel’s Escalating Threats to Palestinian Life
Feb 26, 2025Palestinian fatalities from Israeli military actions and settler violence have reached unprecedented heights since October 2023.
- Viewpoint
Palestine/IsraelUS Domestic Politics and ElectionsThe Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Activism Intensifies in the United States
Feb 26, 2025Ethan Mayer-RichThe new Trump administration has made it clear that repressing pro-Palestine activism is a priority. Trump issued an executive order that the White House said …
- Viewpoint
Recent Arab Moves Deserve Bold Follow-Up
Feb 21, 2025Four key political actors in the Middle East have recently made surprising moves that offered hints of how Arab states and non-state actors can collectively en…
- Policy Analysis
Normalization and Displacement: Saudi Arabia and Trump’s Gaza Proposal
Feb 20, 2025Saudi Arabia is deeply concerned about the risks that Trump’s Gaza project poses to Egypt and Jordan and are uneasy about repeated American and Israeli stateme…
- Viewpoint
JordanUS Foreign PolicyAn Existential Oval Office Moment for Jordan—and All Arabs
Feb 14, 2025Rami G. KhouriThe scene in the White House on February 11 was startling. King Abdullah II of Jordan listened to President Donald Trump ramble on about how the United States …
- Viewpoint
The Gaza War and the Future of Democracy in the United States and Israel
Feb 14, 2025In a way that few could have predicted a few short weeks ago, the fate of democracy in the United States (and in some ways Israel) has now been irrevocably tie…
- Viewpoint
US Foreign PolicyTrump’s First Three Weeks in Office: Signs of Disruption and Chaos
Feb 13, 2025Khalil E. JahshanIn his first few weeks back in office, Donald J. Trump delivered his characteristic ‘shock and confusion’ tactics by unleashing dozens of draconian and vindict…
- Policy Analysis
Trump’s Second-Term Foreign Policy: Highly Centralized, and Highly Personal
Feb 12, 2025The late US secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld once famously explained his taxonomy of information in typically gnomic terms. “There are known knowns,” he sa…
- Policy Analysis
Trump II and American-Gulf Relations
Feb 11, 2025Donald Trump re-entered the White House on January 20 as the first president to serve a non-consecutive second term since Grover Cleveland in 1893. Any expecta…
- Viewpoint
The Drama, Delusion, and Dangers of Trump’s Gaza Plan
Feb 6, 2025Donald Trump displayed his usual combination of disruption and delusion with his proposal for the US to take over the Gaza Strip after displacing its Palestini…
- Policy Analysis
Trump’s Executive Orders and Actions Upend Policies at Home and Abroad
Feb 6, 2025President Donald Trump’s first two weeks in office were marked by his signing of a dizzying array of executive orders, both to fulfill his campaign pledges and…
- Policy Analysis
Out With the Old, In With the New: Is There a New Hope for Lebanon?
Feb 6, 2025Following a surprising appointment as Lebanon’s new prime minister, independent jurist, academic, and former diplomat Nawaf Salam, finds himself enmeshed in th…
- Policy Analysis
Revolutionary Legitimacy in Syria: Sharaa as President
Feb 4, 2025In all transitional periods, it is important to move quickly from revolutionary legitimacy to representative legitimacy, which Syria’s new authorities did by a…
- Policy Analysis
Palestine/IsraelInternational LawThe Slowdown in Enforcing International Law
Jan 29, 2025Jonathan KuttabInternational law has helped govern the behavior of states for hundreds of years. Early principles like the prohibition on poisoning wells (rooted in just war …
- Policy Analysis
SyriaJustice, Equality, and Human RightsLiberation from the “Human Slaughterhouse”: A Dark History of Imprisonment in Syria
Jan 28, 2025Yara M. AsiAssad's regime imprisoned more than 150,000 people, including some 5,000 children. Multiple reports have emerged of horrific torture, neglect, and murder insid…
- Policy Analysis
Trump Will Not Stop Israel from Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Jan 24, 2025Several observers of the Middle East have suggested that President Donald Trump’s “transactional” instincts could impel him to push for a wider Palestinian-Isr…
- Policy Analysis
SyriaRegional Relations and GeopoliticsRegime Change in Syria and Stabilization: The Limits of Turkey’s Unilateral Action
Jan 24, 2025Salim ÇevikTurkey has played a pivotal role in Syria’s conflict, significantly shaping the trajectory of opposition groups, particularly Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). With…
- Intern Corner
Egypt’s Policies and Rhetoric Target Sudanese Refugees
Jan 24, 2025The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shows no signs of abating since its outbreak in April 2023. The violence has persi…
- Policy Analysis
SyriaRegional Relations and GeopoliticsEgypt Remains Cool to the New Syrian Government
Jan 23, 2025Gregory AftandilianThe Egyptian regime of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi looks upon the recent developments in Syria with a good deal of trepidation. That the Islamist rebel armed group, H…
- Viewpoint
A Blind Spot in Post-Assad Syria: The Fate of State Archival Records
Jan 21, 2025The fall of the Assad regime has highlighted a crucial but often overlooked issue: the fate of Syria’s state archives. Former officials have left behind millio…
- Viewpoint
Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict ResolutionIncoherent Ceasefire Deal in Gaza Guaranteed to Fail
Jan 21, 2025Khalil E. JahshanAfter fifteen months of brutal military hostilities in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and Israel finally announced their acceptance of a multi-phased and gradual ceasef…
- Policy Analysis
SyriaMigrants, Refugees, and IDPsPolitical Change and the Fate of Syria’s Refugees Around the World
Jan 16, 2025Heba GowayedOn December 8, the Syrian armed resistance group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) brought the Assad regime to an abrupt end after more than 54 years of brutal rule.…
- Viewpoint
The Emergence of Lebanon’s Third Republic
Jan 16, 2025The election on January 9, 2025, of the Lebanese Army Commander Joseph Aoun as the fourteenth president of Lebanon can very well be the inauguration of the Leb…
- Policy Analysis
The Arab WorldHow Will 2025 Be Different in the Middle East? Perspectives on the New Year
Jan 15, 2025Khalil E. Jahshan Daniel Brumberg Dana El Kurd Imad K. Harb Patricia Karam Nabeel A. Khoury Yousef Munayyer Annelle ShelineThe monumental events that took place in the Middle East in 2024 augur radical changes in the region’s geopolitical environment. Israel’s ongoing genocidal war…
- Policy Analysis
Syrian Regime Change: The View from Oman
Jan 9, 2025The abrupt end of 61 years of Baathist rule in Syria on December 8 caught the Gulf states by surprise. Both governments and citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Co…
- Intern Corner
Palestine/IsraelProtests and ActivismThe Ongoing Suppression of Pro-Palestinian Advocacy in the United States
Jan 8, 2025Selma KarameOn October 15, 2024, the United States and Canada jointly announced terrorist sanctions against the Vancouver-based NGO Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarit…
- Policy Analysis
Lebanon’s Post-Hezbollah “Day After”
Jan 7, 2025The surprising fall of the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria on the heel of Hezbollah’s spectacular losses and, with it, the tremendous weakening of Ir…
- Policy Analysis
LebanonGlobal Health and Health PolicyLebanon’s Health System: Decades of Struggle and a Year of Israeli Attacks
Jan 2, 2025Yara M. AsiOn September 17 and 18, 2024, a coordinated Israeli attack turned pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon into explosive devices, killing at least 42 people and i…
- Policy Analysis
Damascus Falls, and So Does US Policy
Jan 2, 2025With a presidential transition imminent, US policy on Syria, not to mention the broader Middle East, is in limbo.
- Viewpoint
Israel, Syria, and International Law
Dec 26, 2024The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria has provided Israel with yet more opportunities to brazenly tear apart the fabric of international legal norms, f…
- Policy Analysis
Rebuilding and Strengthening Syria’s State Institutions
Dec 23, 2024Nour Taha discusses the need for reviving and strengthening state institutions in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime, stating that they are necessary…
- Policy Analysis
Turkey and the Transition to a Post-Assad Regime in Syria
Dec 20, 2024Turkey's intervention in Syria and its approach to the post-Assad era reflects a complex interplay of short and long-term objectives shaped by domestic politic…
- Policy Analysis
Syria’s Kurds Facing Dangerous Headwinds
Dec 18, 2024The rapid collapse of the Assad regime by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fighters has put Syrian Kurds of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their autonomous …
- Viewpoint
Deciphering the Quick Collapse of the Assad Regime
Dec 17, 2024Many western media outlets have speculated about the quick collapse of the Syrian regime and its military and security services in their battle against a coali…
- Viewpoint
Will Assad’s Fall Give Iran’s Reformists a New Lease on Life?
Dec 11, 2024For Iran, the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and what was left of his regime—together with Moscow’s decision to throw its leading Middle East ally to the wind…
- Policy Analysis
Recalibrating US Engagement in Yemen Under a New Trump Administration
Dec 11, 2024The military escalation between the United States and the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen has significant implications for Yemen’s future. As the Houthis …
- Viewpoint
A New Syria is Born: Hopes and Challenges
Dec 11, 2024December 8, 2024, marked a historic turning point in Syria and the Middle East region—a day when the Syrian people achieved what had seemed unattainable: the t…
- Viewpoint
Israel’s Violations of the Ceasefire with Hezbollah Threaten to Undo It
Dec 10, 2024The ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Lebanon on November 27 was a welcome development after 14 months of skirmishes between the Israeli Army and …
- Policy Analysis
SyriaDemocracy and GovernanceImplications of Assad’s Fall for Syria and the Region
Dec 10, 2024Heba Gowayed Imad K. Harb Bahraa Hijazi Khalil E. Jahshan Patricia Karam Annelle ShelineThe fall of Damascus marked the end of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who inherited the presidency from his father Hafez al-Assad in 2000.
- Policy Analysis
Trump and Company Return to the Folly of “Maximum Pressure” on Iran
Dec 5, 2024When it comes to US Iran policy, simple yet profound realities merit repeating. One of these is that economic sanctions are a tactic, not a strategy. Indeed, u…
- Policy Analysis
LebanonIdentity Politics and SectarianizationHezbollah’s Likely Demise and Lebanon’s Uncertain Future
Dec 4, 2024Patricia KaramIsrael's approval of a US-brokered ceasefire with Hezbollah set the stage for an end to fourteen months of fighting between the two parties, ushering in the po…
- Policy Analysis
Trump’s Election and Future of Turkish-American Relations
Dec 4, 2024Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed clear satisfaction with the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, quickly congratulating…
- Policy Analysis
Motivations for Israel’s Unprecedented Destruction of Palestinian Lives
Dec 2, 2024For over a year, a systematic and unprecedented Israeli campaign of death, injury, and ruin of entire communities has been taking place in Gaza, and in recent …
- Policy Analysis
Palestine/IsraelMigrants, Refugees, and IDPsUNRWA Closure as Prelude to the Elimination of Palestinians’ Right of Return
Dec 2, 2024Mtanes ShihadehThe United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was established in 1949 by a UN General Assembly resolution. Its mai…
- Policy Analysis
Trump Is Back: What Does It Mean for Oil and US-Gulf Relations?
Nov 27, 2024President-elect Donald Trump has made clear his fondness for fossil fuels, a fondness that was reciprocated by many in the industry. Expectations are high. But…
- Policy Analysis
Gaza and Lebanon: No Distinction Between Civilian and Military Targets
Nov 22, 2024One of the consequences of the present Israeli war on Gaza has been the blatant erosion of respect for and belief in international legal principles and institu…
- Policy Analysis
Security Dimensions of the Saudi-Iranian Détente
Nov 21, 2024The Saudi-Iranian renormalization deal, signed in Beijing on March 10, 2023, has led to a significant reduction in friction between Riyadh and Tehran. Even as …
- Viewpoint
A Preview of Trump’s National Security Team
Nov 19, 2024Just two weeks have passed since President-elect Donald Trump won the election, and his new administration is already taking shape. Trump’s selections for his …
- Policy Analysis
Foreign Policy in the Second Trump Administration Takes Shape
Nov 19, 2024The foundations of President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy are now taking shape. He has nominated Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), as secretary of state, form…
- Policy Analysis
Saudi Arabia and Trump: Expectations and Challenges Ahead
Nov 14, 2024On November 5, former President Donald Trump successfully reclaimed the White House, achieving a decisive victory over his Democratic opponent, Vice President …
- Policy Analysis
The Arabian Peninsula and The GulfRegional Relations and GeopoliticsGCC States Seek Diplomacy During US Absence
Nov 12, 2024Kristian Coates UlrichsenThe expansion and partial regionalization of what is already the longest and deadliest conflict in the Israeli-Palestinian arena since 1948 presents the Gulf A…
- Viewpoint
Trump’s Middle East Team Will Have to Deal with His Unpredictability and Narcissism
Nov 8, 2024It is very hard to predict the foreign policy that president-elect Donald Trump will pursue because he is deeply and pathologically unpredictable. On both the …
- Policy Analysis
US Domestic Politics and ElectionsCommentary: Why Trump Won
Nov 7, 2024Yara M. Asi Imad K. Harb Khalil E. Jahshan Tamara Kharroub Yousef Munayyer Annelle ShelineThe election of former President Donald Trump after losing the 2020 round to President Joe Biden is likely to go down in the annals of American history as a mo…
- Policy Analysis
Intent to Destroy: Documenting a Year of Israel’s Attacks on Health in Gaza
Nov 7, 2024After a year of unfathomable images, videos, and testimonies from Gaza, the story of 19-year-old Shaban al-Dalou still managed to shock the world. On October 1…
- Policy Analysis
A Second Trump Administration: Potential Policy Toward the Middle East
Nov 5, 2024The November 5 presidential election is likely to have major implications for US foreign policy, as it pits a centrist and robust internationalist candidate (V…
- Policy Analysis
Girding for Post-Election Violence if Trump Loses
Nov 4, 2024Many Americans are worried that if former President Donald Trump loses to Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election, he and his Make American Gre…
- Policy Analysis
The New Occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Oct 31, 2024Israel’s concept for the “day after” in Gaza is becoming clearer as its war on the Strip continues into its second year. In fact, the features of this plan beg…
- Viewpoint
Palestine/IsraelUS Domestic Politics and ElectionsHarris and the Arab-American Vote: Election Day Approaches
Oct 31, 2024Ethan Mayer-RichThe continued peripheralization of Arab-American voices has made it clear that to Harris and her campaign, just as Palestinian lives may not matter as much as …
- Policy Analysis
Raison d’État, Germany, and the Israeli War on Gaza
Oct 29, 2024On October 10, 2024, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock gave a speech that revived the debate around Staatsräson, or raison d’état (reason of state), as…
- Policy Analysis
Israel’s Shifting Policies Toward the West Bank
Oct 25, 2024This position paper examines the Israeli government’s policies and objectives vis-à-vis the West Bank since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in …
- Policy Analysis
Important Conclusions from Israel’s Wars on Palestine and Lebanon
Oct 25, 2024It is hard to overemphasize the importance of Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and Chairman of Hamas’s Political Bureau Yahya…
- Policy Analysis
The Israel/Palestine Stain on Biden’s Foreign Policy Legacy
Oct 23, 2024Every US president wants to leave office with a positive legacy. Some do so to draw attention away from a scandal; others hope that the history books will trea…
- Policy Analysis
SudanMigrants, Refugees, and IDPsWar and Displacement in Sudan
Oct 22, 2024Heba GowayedIn April 2023, violence broke out in Sudan’s capital Khartoum in a power struggle between Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), an…
- Policy Analysis
Demystifying How the Hamas Leadership Works
Oct 18, 2024In light of the recent news of the death of Yahya Sinwar, Head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Arab Center Washington DC is republishing this analytic piece by …
- Policy Analysis
The New UK Labor Government and Palestine
Oct 17, 2024At first glance, the position of the United Kingdom’s (UK) new government toward Palestine appears to diverge little from US policy. But a closer look at the L…
- Viewpoint
Middle East Realities That Require an Escape Route
Oct 17, 2024The past month may prove to be the most critical moment of geo-strategic transformation in the Middle East since the end of the Second World War—if not its mos…
- Policy Analysis
Japan: Inching Toward Palestine?
Oct 16, 2024In September, Taro Kono, Japan’s former foreign minister and a main contender for president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), announced that if he were to…
