Publications

Ben White discusses how Israel’s practice of denying building permits, demolishing homes, and attacking civil society organizations in Area C of the occupied W…

Khalil al-Anani writes that President Biden’s recent meetings with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE sent a clear message to the world’s authorit…

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

Authoritarianism in the Arab world has assumed many shapes and shades in the decades since the end of formal European colonialism in the mid-twentieth century.…

In October 2021, Israel’s Defense Ministry issued an order designating six prominent Palestinian civil society groups and NGOs as terrorist organizations. This…

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s health has been the subject of speculation for some time, especially since he has been afflicted by both prostate cancer …

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…

In 2018, the United Nations Security Council’s Panel of Experts on Yemen suggested that the Yemeni State had begun to fragment as a result of a conflict that i…

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 …

Senators Leahy, Sanders, and Warren introduced a resolution to remove US forces from the Saudi-led war coalition in Yemen. Under the War Powers Act, the presid…

Sisi’s call for a national dialogue could break through Egypt’s political stasis. However, there are several reasons to believe otherwise.

In the early hours of July 1, 2022, Turkish sources reported on a story of undocumented immigrants fleeing the Osmaniye Refugee Camp in southern Turkey. That s…

Lebanon and Israel have frequently been at odds during their nearly two years of negotiations over the two countries’ Mediterranean maritime border, with diffi…

President Joe Biden is only months away from his first midterm election as commander in chief, and with many analysts projecting potentially historic losses fo…

Once again, Libya is falling victim to its political elites’ failure to agree on a long-awaited election mechanism and constitutional provisions that would sec…

On June 20, 2022, Egyptian college student Naira Ashraf was beaten and murdered by a man who had harassed and stalked her for years, despite her repeated rejec…

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…

The Israeli Knesset once again voted to dissolve itself, setting the stage for new elections this fall, which will be the country’s fifth in just three years. …

Despite the limited achievements of Iraq and Lebanon's recently-established protest movements compared to their stated objectives, the movements’ small gains m…

President Joe Biden has finally scheduled his first trip to the Middle East as chief executive. The visit, which was postponed from June to July 13-16 because …

Despite its small size, Palestine has always played an outsized role in international politics. Palestine and the Palestinians have been a recurring theme in U…

A recent World Bank report on the Palestinian economy once again demonstrates that most research produced by international financial institutions on this topic…

The international community was largely unprepared to deal with the fallout of Sudan’s October 2021 coup, organized by the country’s military with the support …

Despite early assessments that Russia would begin drawing down its military forces in Syria due to its need for more troops in the Ukraine invasion, it appears…

In May 2022, the Israeli commander in the West Bank issued the latest set of regulations for the occupied territories in the form of Booklet #261. The booklet …

In May 2022, at least 16 Egyptian troops were killed in two separate attacks in the Sinai Peninsula. The attacks were claimed by Wilayat Sinai or Sinai Provinc…

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…

The potential impact of a drop in the supply of grain to global markets due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has increased fears about food insecurity around …

In all initiatives and negotiations for a final and peaceful settlement between Israel and Palestine, Jerusalem has proved to be the toughest final-status issu…

On April 12, the US Department of State released its annual country reports on human rights. The reports are a key resource for human rights scholars and gover…

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…

In December 2021, Egyptian activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah was sentenced to prison for five years after being convicted of “spreading false news.” Alaa …

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…

Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, held on May 15, 2022, were the first chance to understand where Lebanese voters stand on a number of important issues since …

Israel has long sought entry into the United States Visa Waiver Program (VWP) with limited success, despite years of efforts and the close strategic and bilate…

On May 15, resident Lebanese go to the polls to elect a new 128-member parliament to replace the one elected four years ago. Given the right to vote in 2018, e…

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…

The world today is facing an unprecedented crisis of human displacement. About one of every 95 persons is displaced from his or her home due to persecution, wa…

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MbS) rise to power has resulted in what are arguably some of the most significant political transformations …

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…

Another chapter in Yemen’s domestic developments and regional entanglements seems to have begun, but with no assurances that it will have a happy ending. Follo…

The abrupt resignation on April 6 of Idit Silman, a key member of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina Party and de facto whip for the Bennett-Lapid coaliti…

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…

Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, is a cherished time for hundreds of millions across the globe, featuring fasting, reflection, recitation of religious verse, a…

The Russian war on Ukraine will have significant impacts on countries in the Middle East, ranging from strategic realignments to energy security and food suppl…

In the last few weeks, there has seen an uptick in armed attacks by Palestinians within the green line. From the Palestinian perspective, these attacks deliver…

Leveraging its close relations with both sides of the Ukraine conflict, Turkey has seized the opportunity to highlight its strategic importance. The latest Rus…

Since its launching on February 24, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has truly put different aspects of international law to the test. The international…

“Politics must stop at the water’s edge,” Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg famously asserted in1947, as he helped Democratic President Harry S. Truman lay …

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…

Two years after the initial lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, biomedical advancements like vaccinations and pharmaceutical treatments began to allow countrie…

It appears that all bets are off in Libya. Elections that were scheduled for last December were postponed as competing institutions and individuals interpret p…

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 Russian invasion of Ukraine is a geopolitical event that will have serious global repercussions that go beyond the military aspects of the conflict. Indeed…

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…

Egypt has become the third largest arms importer in the world, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The institute’s “Trends i…

On February 6, Haaretz reported that Israeli President Isaac Herzog called to wish Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife a speedy recovery, after…