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US Foreign PolicyUS National Security Strategies: From Carter to Trump
Dec 11, 2025Nabeel A. KhouryOver the past several decades, US National Security Strategies (NSS) have reflected a combination of goals and approaches that remained general enough to refle…
- Policy Analysis
Palestine/IsraelDemocracy and GovernanceBribes and the Ballot Box: How Israel’s 2026 Budget Serves the Governing Coalition
Dec 10, 2025Mtanes ShihadehThe Israeli government will soon present its economic and financial agenda for 2026 in the form of a draft budget and an Economic Arrangements Law that will se…
- ViewpointUS Foreign Policy
The Machinery of Impunity: How Washington’s Elite Stays above the Law—and How to End It
Dec 3, 2025Jasmine El-GamalFrom the torture carried out during the George W. Bush administration to the surge in drone warfare under President Barack Obama, from President Joe Biden’s un…
- Policy AnalysisSudanConflicts and Conflict Resolution
Sudan: International Actors Need to be Part of the Solution, Not the Problem
Dec 1, 2025Gregory AftandilianThe war in Sudan has caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with an estimated 150,000 people dead and millions displaced since the conflict broke…
- Policy AnalysisSudanJustice, Equality, and Human Rights
Sudan’s War on Civilians: A Continuation of Decades of Atrocities
Dec 1, 2025Yara M. AsiFor more than a year, the al-Saudi Maternity Hospital was the only functioning hospital in al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur in western Sudan. The largest…
- Policy AnalysisUS Domestic Politics and Elections
What the Recent US Elections Mean for Trump and for US Foreign Policy
Nov 26, 2025Charles W. DunnePresident Donald Trump and congressional Republicans were not directly on the ballot in the November 4, 2025, elections, but the results were still a consequen…
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelSecurity and Defense
The CMCC and the US-Israel Alliance: Collusion or Enforcement Mechanism?
Nov 24, 2025Hanna AlshaikhThe fastest route to Washington no longer runs through Tel Aviv, as the saying once went, but through Kiryat Gat, a small industrial city in southern Israel. O…
- Policy AnalysisSyriaDemocracy and Governance
Prospects for Syria’s Democratization Under Ahmed al-Sharaa
Nov 21, 2025Patricia KaramThe spectacular and unforeseen fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 upended Syria’s political order and launched a precarious transition. Ahmed al-Sharaa o…
- Policy AnalysisMoroccoProtests and Activism
Morocco at Breaking Point? Drought, Misrule, and the Rise of Gen Z 212
Nov 20, 2025Samia ErrazzoukiFrom late September to mid-October 2025, Moroccans across the country descended into the streets to once again demand change from their government. Under the b…
- ViewpointPalestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy
UNSC Resolution 2803: A Shaky Step Toward the Unknown
Nov 19, 2025Khalil E. JahshanOn November 17, 2025, following weeks of diplomatic maneuvering, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted to approve Resolution 2803 (2025) in support …
- Policy AnalysisSaudi ArabiaUS Foreign Policy
MBS Returns to Washington: Re-Assessing US-Saudi Relations
Nov 18, 2025Kristian Coates UlrichsenMohammed bin Salman’s return to Washington after seven years signals a recalibration of US-Saudi ties, with Riyadh seeking security assurances as well as suppo…
- ViewpointEgyptDemocracy and Governance
Egyptian Democracy Is What Sisi Makes of It
Nov 18, 2025Imad K. HarbEgyptians are currently casting their ballots in parliamentary elections, the final results of which will not be announced before late December 2025. In two ph…
- Policy AnalysisYemenRegional Relations and Geopolitics
Israel, the UAE, and Yemen’s South: The Politics of Unlikely Alliances
Nov 14, 2025 Giorgio CafieroHaving emerged in 2017 from Yemen’s Southern Movement, the Southern Transitional Council (STC) is the preeminent political and military force in southern Yemen…
- Policy AnalysisThe Horn of AfricaEnergy and Economics
Bitcoin Mining on the Nile? Implications of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam for Egypt and Sudan
Nov 12, 2025Lama ElhatowEthiopia’s highly contested and controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was officially inaugurated on September 9, 2025, marking the completion of…
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelThe War on Gaza
Who Profits? US Corporations and the Whitewashing of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
Nov 11, 2025Annelle ShelineSince Israel began its brutal assault on Gaza in October 2023, observers have asked how the world could allow the indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinians to c…
- ViewpointSyriaUS Foreign Policy
The Populist and the Pragmatist: Why Trump Sees a Kindred Spirit in Syria’s al-Sharaa
Nov 11, 2025Daniel NeepAt first glance, US President Donald J. Trump and Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa inhabit very different political universes. Trump, the populist pre…
- Policy AnalysisQatarUS Foreign Policy
Qatar Copes with Trump’s Middle East Vision
Nov 6, 2025Daniel BrumbergAmong Arab states, perhaps none faces a more complex challenge in managing relations with President Donald Trump than Qatar. Ironically, Doha’s deepening partn…
- Policy AnalysisYemenConflicts and Conflict Resolution
Yemen Caught Between Domestic Fragmentation and Regional Tensions
Nov 5, 2025Nabeel A. KhouryMore than a decade into Yemen’s civil war, no end to the conflict is in sight. The lines of control between the two main belligerents have barely changed, and …
- Policy AnalysisSyriaDemocracy and Governance
Syria’s Fragile Integration: The SDF Joins the Army but Autonomy Remains Elusive
Nov 5, 2025Gregory AftandilianAn October 2025 deal between Damascus and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—which are linked to the Kurdish-dominated autonomous administration in the northea…
- Policy AnalysisSudanConflicts and Conflict Resolution
Sudan’s War: The Failure of Mediation and the Struggle for Civilian Rule
Oct 31, 2025Ingie GoharOn April 15, 2023, a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led b…
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy
No Protection, No Justice: US Citizens Killed with Impunity by Israel
Oct 30, 2025Yara M. AsiOn a cold night in January 2022, Omar Assad, an elderly Palestinian American man, was driving back to his town in the West Bank after a night of playing cards …
- Policy AnalysisLebanonConflicts and Conflict Resolution
Will the Ceasefire in Gaza Impact Disarmament in Lebanon?
Oct 22, 2025Patricia KaramIn late September 2025, nearly two years after the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, President Donald Trump unveiled a highly touted 20-point “peace plan” that pr…
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelInternational Law
Construction in the E1 Area: Preventing Palestinian Geographical Contiguity
Oct 22, 2025Mtanes Shihadeh Ikram MohammedThe Israeli government continues to exploit the post-October 7, 2023, situation to impose a new geopolitical and demographic reality in the occupied West Bank,…
- Policy AnalysisThe Arabian Peninsula and The GulfSecurity and Defense
Israel’s Attack on Qatar and the Failure of GCC Defense Cooperation
Oct 14, 2025Kristian Coates UlrichsenOn September 9, 2025, Israel attacked Qatar in an act of international aggression that caused shockwaves in Doha, across the Gulf states, and around the world.…
- Policy AnalysisIraqDemocracy and Governance
Baghdad Between Tehran and Washington: The Struggle for a Sovereign State
Oct 9, 2025Patricia KaramIraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani is walking a delicate tightrope between asserting the country’s sovereignty and maintaining relations with Iran a…
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution
The Trump-Netanyahu Plan for Gaza: A Legal Analysis
Oct 9, 2025Jonathan KuttabMuch has been said and written about the Gaza peace plan announced by President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 29, 202…
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution
Why the Rush to Recognize Palestine? And Does It Matter?
Oct 8, 2025Charles W. DunneRecognition of a State of Palestine has recently taken on new momentum. On September 22, 2025, France became the latest country to extend recognition when Fren…
- Policy AnalysisTurkeyThe War on Gaza
Beyond Gaza: The Strategic Fault Lines in Turkey–Israel Relations
Oct 2, 2025Salim ÇevikTurkey–Israel relations have entered one of their most tense periods in years, triggered by a series of regional developments that have transformed the two cou…
- Research PaperLevantEnergy and Economics
Gas and Geopolitics in the Eastern Mediterranean
Oct 1, 2025Jim KraneThe resource base in the Eastern Mediterranean is of primary interest not because of the size of its reserves but because of its proximity to the EU market, an…
- Policy AnalysisQatarThe War on Gaza
Israel’s Attack on Qatar and the End of Diplomacy
Sep 30, 2025Nabeel A. KhouryOn September 9, 2025, Israel attacked a Hamas delegation in Doha, Qatar, as it was meeting to discuss the latest US-brokered ceasefire proposal to halt the war…
- Policy AnalysisSyriaGlobal Health and Health Policy
From Syria to Sudan: How Captagon Fuels Instability
Sep 26, 2025Gregory AftandilianSyria’s former Assad regime was the primary producer and chief beneficiary of the Captagon drug trade. Although the new Syrian government led by interim presid…
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelThe War on Gaza
Gaza’s Medical Crisis and the US Visa Freeze
Sep 25, 2025Yara M. AsiOn July 7, 2024, an Israeli bombing in Khan Younis, Gaza, killed the parents, brother, and sister of a three-year-old Palestinian boy named Adam. While Adam’s …
- Policy AnalysisLebanonEnergy and Economics
Can Lebanon Be a Hub for Syria’s Reconstruction?
Sep 24, 2025Patricia KaramNearly a year after the end of Syria’s civil war and the fall of the Assad dictatorship, the country has embarked on a long and complex reconstruction process.…
- ViewpointSyriaPublic Opinion
Reading the Syrian Public Opinion Survey 2025: Indicators of Optimism
Sep 19, 2025Daniel NeepThe Arab Opinion Index: Syrian Public Opinion Survey 2025 provides an unusually granular view of political attitudes in a country long considered impervious to…
- Policy AnalysisThe Arabian Peninsula and The GulfDemocracy and Governance
Fueling Instability: Hydrocarbons, Protests, and the Limits of Yemen’s Internationally Recognized Government
Sep 12, 2025Nicholas BrumfieldIn late July 2025, large-scale protests against electricity outages, economic deterioration, and general mismanagement by Yemen’s Internationally Recognized Go…
- Policy AnalysisEgyptUS Foreign Policy
The US-Egypt Relationship Might Face a Reckoning
Sep 11, 2025Charles W. DunneThe relationship between the United States and Egypt has seen many highs and lows over the decades. Under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and now Trump …
- Policy AnalysisQatarThe War on Gaza
Striking a US Ally: Israel’s Attack on Qatar and the Erosion of Regional Stability
Sep 9, 2025Hanna Alshaikh Charles W. Dunne Khalil E. Jahshan Tamara Kharroub Yousef Munayyer Kristian Coates UlrichsenOn the morning of September 9, 2025, 15 Israeli jets carried out an airstrike on residential buildings in Doha, Qatar. Israel claimed that the strike was a pre…
- ViewpointLebanonSecurity and Defense
Palestinian Disarmament in Lebanon: Small Steps with Regional Implications
Sep 4, 2025Rami G. KhouriOn August 21, 2025, Palestinian factions in the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp near Beirut transferred light weapons in pickup trucks to the Lebanese Armed Forc…
- Policy AnalysisIranDemocracy and Governance
Political Divisions in Iran and the Uncertain Path to a New Nuclear Deal
Sep 4, 2025Daniel BrumbergSome analysts have argued that the unprecedented Israeli and American June 2025 assault on Iran has created a “new regional order” in the Middle East. But what…
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy
Trump’s Support for Netanyahu: A Political Liability?
Aug 29, 2025Gregory AftandilianDespite occasional irritations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump has made unconditional US backing of the Israeli leader a…
- ViewpointUS Foreign Policy
Trump Administration Guts State’s Human Rights Reports
Aug 29, 2025Ingie GoharOn August 12, 2025, the US Department of State released the 2024 human rights reports, covering 198 countries and territories. State’s annual reports were prev…
- ViewpointPalestine/IsraelThe War on Gaza
Netanyahu’s Extreme Vision for Gaza
Aug 22, 2025Khalil E. JahshanIn a highly publicized foreign press conference in Jerusalem on August 10, 2025, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed with uncharacteristic clarity his p…
- Policy AnalysisThe Arabian Peninsula and The GulfEnergy and Economics
OPEC Is Pushing Down Oil Prices Despite a Cash Crunch in Saudi Arabia. Here Is Why
Aug 21, 2025Jim KraneSomething odd is happening in oil markets. Demand is weaker than it has been in many years, yet OPEC+ is unwinding cuts and increasing production at a brisk pa…
- Policy AnalysisLebanonSecurity and Defense
Disarming Hezbollah: Lebanon at a Crossroads
Aug 20, 2025Patricia KaramThe only viable route to lasting stability, economic recovery, and sovereignty is to restore the Lebanese state's constitutional monopoly over arms through a t…
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelThe War on Gaza
The Growing Consensus over Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
Aug 19, 2025Yara M. AsiJust one week after October 7, 2023, more than 800 scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies, and genocide studies signed a public stat…
- Research PaperPalestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution
The New York Declaration on the Two-State Solution: More Empty Promises?
Aug 15, 2025Susan M. AkramThe New York Declaration on the “Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” is the outcome document of …
- From our AffiliatesSaudi ArabiaThe War on Gaza
Saudi Arabia’s Response to Israel’s New Security Doctrine in the Levant
Aug 14, 2025The Unit for Political StudiesIn July 2025, Saudi Arabia and France jointly convened a high-profile diplomatic conference in New York dedicated to reviving momentum for a negotiated two-sta…
- Policy AnalysisLebanonRegional Relations and Geopolitics
Rumors and Risks: Lebanon’s Political Anxieties and Relations with the New Syria
Aug 12, 2025Patricia KaramIn May 2025, Syria’s transitional President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, confirmed that his government was in indirect communication with Israel, the first time the two s…
- Policy AnalysisTurkeyRegional Relations and Geopolitics
Moderation Without Transformation: Why Turkey Is Failing Syria’s Postwar Transition
Aug 8, 2025Salim ÇevikAfter years of investing in Syria’s opposition, Ankara is committed to see the emerging government in Damascus establish a functioning state that can restore b…
- Policy AnalysisSaudi ArabiaRegional Relations and Geopolitics
Saudi Arabia and the New Syria: Constructive Pragmatism?
Aug 7, 2025Kristian Coates UlrichsenA large Saudi business delegation traveled to Syria on July 23-25, 2025, and participated in an inaugural Syrian-Saudi Investment Forum at the presidential pal…
- Policy AnalysisLevantIdentity Politics and Sectarianization
From Sectarianism to Tribalism: Rebuilding Syria’s Power Structures
Aug 6, 2025Haian DukhanThe July 13–18, 2025 violence between Druze and Bedouin in Syria’s southern al-Suwayda governorate was followed by a massive wave of tribal mobilization across…
- Policy AnalysisSyriaMigrants, Refugees, and IDPs
Refugees Return to Syria: Challenges and Uncertainties
Aug 1, 2025Heba GowayedGlobally the human displacement crisis has reached unprecedented heights, with one in every 67 people forced from their homes. During its 14 long years of civi…
- ViewpointSyriaIdentity Politics and Sectarianization
The Clashes in al-Suwayda: New Possibilities and Old Ghosts in Syria
Jul 31, 2025Rami G. KhouriThe July 2025 violence in southern Syria’s al-Suwayda region that killed 600 people and displaced thousands more traces its origins back to April 2025, when Su…
- Policy AnalysisEgyptEnergy and Economics
Sisi’s Foreign Policy Fails to Obscure Egypt’s Festering Economic Problems
Jul 23, 2025Gregory AftandilianAlthough Egypt’s economy has seen several improvements over the past year, namely a fall in the inflation rate and an infusion of external financing, it is sti…
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelIsraeli War Tactics and Genocide
Starved, Ruined, and Displaced: What’s Next for Gaza?
Jul 18, 2025Mohammed SamhouriIn recent weeks, two significant developments have dominated the news from Gaza. One is the daily deadly violence surrounding the operations of the new Gaza Hu…
- Policy AnalysisSyriaUS Foreign Policy
Lifting US Sanctions on Syria: A New Chapter for Damascus and Beirut?
Jul 18, 2025Patricia KaramIn a May 13, 2025, speech in Riyadh, President Donald Trump surprised the world by pledging to lift all US sanctions on Syria. Trump’s unexpected announcement …
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution
Palestine and the Middle East After the Iran-Israel war
Jul 15, 2025Rami G. KhouriThe Middle East in recent months has witnessed multiple military and ideological confrontations. Historic changes in regional power balances signal new strateg…
- Policy AnalysisPalestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy
A Trump-Netanyahu New Middle East?
Jul 9, 2025Nabeel A. KhouryThe Trump administration and the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been following a roadmap toward their own version of a…
- ViewpointPalestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy
Trump Must Push for a Gaza Ceasefire Without Indulging Netanyahu’s Iran Strategy
Jul 7, 2025Daniel BrumbergWe may never, or at least not anytime soon, know definitively how much of Iran's nuclear program Israel and the United States destroyed. But even if the attack…
- Policy AnalysisTunisiaDemocracy and Governance
Repression and Judicial Struggles in Kais Saied’s Tunisia
Jul 3, 2025The Unit for Political StudiesAlmost four years into President Kais Saied’s imposition of one-man-rule in Tunisia, his effort pivots around a process of “executive aggrandizement” that is d…
- Policy AnalysisSaudi ArabiaConflicts and Conflict Resolution
Israel-Iran Confrontation Tests Saudi Arabia’s Quest for Neutrality
Jul 2, 2025The Unit for Political StudiesOvernight on June 21-22, American military aircraft launched strikes on three nuclear facilities inside Iran, most notably the fortified Fordow plant. To reach…
- Policy AnalysisIranConflicts and Conflict Resolution
The GCC States and the US-Iran Dance Near the Abyss
Jul 2, 2025Kristian Coates UlrichsenYears of shadowboxing and increasingly direct skirmishing between Israel and Iran erupted into 12 days of conflict that began in the early hours of June 13 and…
- Policy AnalysisSyriaIdentity Politics and Sectarianization
Syrian Kurds Attempt to Maneuver Amid New Realities
Jun 27, 2025Gregory AftandilianSyrian Kurds face new realities that have put their experiment in autonomy in serious doubt. Although in March 2025 they signed an agreement with the new Syria…
- Research PaperPalestine/IsraelRegional Relations and Geopolitics
The Shifting Sands of European Diplomacy: The EU’s Evolving Alignment with Israel
Jun 24, 2025Isabel RuckAbstractThis paper examines the evolution of the European Union's (EU) foreign policy stance toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, specifically focusing on …
- Policy AnalysisIranUS Foreign Policy
Perspectives on the US Attack on Iran and Its Repercussions
Jun 23, 2025Charles W. Dunne Imad K. Harb Khalil E. Jahshan Tamara Kharroub Assal Rad Annelle Sheline Kristian Coates UlrichsenAfter waiting for a week following Israel’s June 13 attack on Iran, US President Donald Trump decided to involve the United States directly in the Israeli-Iran…
