Policy Analysis

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  • Policy Analysis
    IranSecurity and Defense

    Iran-Israel Drone Competition and the Changing Nature of Warfare in the Middle East

    Oct 13, 2022Bishara A. Bahbah

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranProtests and Activism

    Iran’s Ongoing Protests: Potential Scenarios During a Dangerous Time

    Sep 30, 2022Daniel Brumberg

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    IraqIdentity Politics and Sectarianization

    Iran’s Cautious Stance on Iraq’s Current Political Crisis

    Sep 27, 2022Zeidon Alkinani

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranUS Foreign Policy

    No Plan B for the US as Geostrategic Shifts Threaten to Scuttle Iran Nuclear Deal

    Sep 20, 2022Daniel Brumberg

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranReligion and Politics

    Assault on Salman Rushdie Generates Diplomatic and Political Tremors

    Sep 2, 2022Daniel Brumberg

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranUS Foreign Policy

    US Diplomacy with Iran Is Needed to Achieve Security in the Middle East

    Jul 28, 2022Daniel Brumberg

    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, …

  • Policy Analysis
    The Arabian Peninsula and The GulfUS Foreign Policy

    The Biden Administration Is Struggling to Develop a Middle East Strategy

    Jun 10, 2022Daniel Brumberg

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranMedia and Technology

    Information Controls in Iranian Cyberspace: A Soft War Strategy

    May 23, 2022Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

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

  • Policy Analysis
    LebanonIdentity Politics and Sectarianization

    Hezbollah Mirrors a Weak State and a Turbulent Region

    Apr 13, 2022Nabeel A. Khoury

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranSecurity and Defense

    Israel-Iran Shadow War in Syria intensifies Amid International Developments

    Mar 23, 2022Gregory Aftandilian

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Iran and Israel Deal with the Rampaging Russian Bear

    Mar 16, 2022Daniel Brumberg

    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,…

  • Policy Analysis
    TurkeyRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Turkey’s Evolving Policy toward Iran

    Feb 16, 2022Mustafa Gurbuz

    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…