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  • Policy Analysis
    IranConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    The GCC Is On Board with the Saudi-Iran Agreement

    Mar 27, 2023Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    IraqUS Foreign Policy

    Iraq 20 Years since the 2003 US Invasion

    Mar 24, 2023Imad K. Harb Patricia Karam Abdulwahab Al-Qassab Rend Al-Rahim

    On March 20, 2003, the United States led an invasion of Iraq supposedly meant to halt its development of weapons of mass destruction. Lacking the support of th…

  • Policy Analysis
    The Arab WorldUS Foreign Policy

    US Middle East Policy: The Trump-Biden Doctrine in Action

    Mar 22, 2023Charles W. Dunne

    All US presidents, it seems, need their own foreign policy “doctrine.” President James Monroe famously started the trend in 1823, and many others—Truman, Eisen…

  • Policy Analysis
    YemenConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Yemen and the Saudi-Iran Rapprochement

    Mar 22, 2023Nabeel A. Khoury

    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, …

  • Policy Analysis
    IraqDemocracy and Governance

    Unfinished Business: Nation-Building in Iraq Since 2003

    Mar 21, 2023Rend Al-Rahim

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranIdentity Politics and Sectarianization

    Lebanon and Syria and the Saudi-Iran Detente

    Mar 21, 2023Imad K. Harb

    The recent China-brokered agreement between Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran is expected to have a de-escalating effect on many issues in the Midd…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    China as Middle East Matchmaker

    Mar 16, 2023Daniel Brumberg

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

  • Policy Analysis
    YemenConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Oman’s Interests and Role in the Conflict in Yemen

    Mar 14, 2023Afrah Nasser

    In the course of the conflict in Yemen, Oman’s role has evolved substantially and in various ways. Currently, expectations are high that the sultanate will be …

  • Policy Analysis
    OmanRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Walking a Tightrope: Oman and Normalization with Israel

    Mar 7, 2023Imad K. Harb

    As the mechanisms of normalization between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan continue to take shape, other Arab states are ponde…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranProtests and Activism

    Iranian Protests and the Crisis of Free Speech

    Feb 23, 2023Kourosh Ziabari

    There is consensus among scholars and observers that the protests that erupted in Iran in September 2022 represent a defining moment in the contemporary histor…

  • Policy Analysis
    The Arab WorldUS Foreign Policy

    Washington Doubles Down on Middle East Ties

    Feb 15, 2023Charles W. Dunne

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranDemocracy and Governance

    Succeeding Khamenei: Can Iran’s Leaders Reinvent Their Islamic Republic?

    Feb 3, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    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…