• Policy Analysis
    Regional Implications and Geopolitics

    Turkey’s “Guarantor System” for Ending the Gaza War Has Limitations

    Jan 17, 2024Ali Bakir

    In mid-October, following the UN Security Council’s failure to pass a Russian resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza, Turkey proposed a…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Normalization Survives Despite the Gaza War

    Jan 11, 2024Imad K. Harb

    The current Israeli war on Gaza, now well into its fourth deadly month, has cast a calamitous shadow over the lives of Palestinians and Israelis, as well as ov…

  • Policy Analysis
    OmanRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Oman, Gaza, and Relations with the United States

    Jan 5, 2024Giorgio Cafiero

    The Sultanate of Oman traditionally has maintained a low profile on the international stage while conducting a friends-of-all foreign policy based on moderatio…

  • Policy Analysis
    Regional Relations and Geopolitics

    The Far East Pivots to the Middle East 

    Jan 3, 2024Nabeel A. Khoury

    The phrase “Pivot to the East,” popularized during the Obama administration, signified a realization of the rising importance of China and of growing US intere…

  • Viewpoint
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Arouri’s Assassination Will Achieve Nothing

    Jan 3, 2024Imad K. Harb

    In its pursuit of Hamas leaders, an Israeli drone has assassinated Saleh al-Arouri, the Deputy Chairman of Hamas’s Political Bureau, a senior official in the o…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Russia and China on Gaza: Sidelined, Lurking—or Winning?

    Dec 22, 2023Charles W. Dunne

    It wasn’t that long ago that Russia and China seemed to dominate the Middle East, and the United States was on the brink of relegation to the sidelines.Russia …

  • Policy Analysis
    LebanonConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Lebanon’s Political Forces Oppose a War with Israel

    Dec 20, 2023Patricia Karam

    With a heightened risk of the Gaza war spilling over into Lebanon, currently mired in acute political, economic, and social crises, the country’s politicians v…

  • Viewpoint
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Expand the Arab Peace Initiative to Increase Its Chances of Success

    Dec 7, 2023Rami G. Khouri

    Some in the Arab region and the international community seem to expect that after the Israeli war on Gaza and the destruction of most life systems in the Strip…

  • Policy Analysis
    EgyptConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Egypt Muddles Through the Crisis in Gaza

    Dec 6, 2023Imad K. Harb

    Egypt has considered the Gaza Strip to be a soft underbelly since it ruled it prior to 1967, but also after it regained control of the Sinai Peninsula from Isr…

  • Policy Analysis
    YemenConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Assessing Yemen as a Second Front in the Gaza War

    Nov 30, 2023Nabeel A. Khoury

    On November 19, Yemen’s Houthis hijacked a cargo ship indirectly linked to Israel as it was traveling in the Red Sea. Much like their firing of missiles toward…

  • Policy Analysis
    TurkeyRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Erdoğan, Gaza, and Turkey’s Regional Reconciliation

    Nov 30, 2023Salim Çevik

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's first statements following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli war on the Gaza Strip were …

  • Policy Analysis
    IranRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Hamas’s “Al-Aqsa Flood” Challenges Iran’s Axis of Resistance

    Nov 27, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    While the Biden administration, with Qatar’s support, has succeeded in securing a deal with Israel and Hamas for a combat “pause,” it remains to be seen if thi…

  • Policy Analysis
    The Arabian Peninsula and The GulfRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    GCC States and the War on Gaza: Positions, Perceptions, and Interests

    The war on Gaza has for all intents and purposes reinstated the centrality of the Palestinian issue to the regional and international politics of the Middle Ea…

  • Viewpoint
    LebanonConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Hezbollah Reluctantly Awaits Israel’s Decision on War

    Nov 17, 2023Imad K. Harb

    The frontline on the Lebanese-Israeli border continues to witness the real skirmishes of an undeclared war between Israel and Hezbollah. Reciprocal attacks bet…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy

    Gaza, the Ruin of US Policy, and a Transformed Middle East

    Nov 16, 2023Charles W. Dunne

    The Biden administration must act quickly and offer specific plans and timelines to shape post-conflict expectations and establish its priorities with the part…

  • From our Affiliates
    JordanConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    The Jordanian Response to the War on Gaza

    Nov 15, 2023Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

    Jordan deals with the Palestinian issue according to complex political, military, security, economic and demographic calculations. The official position is det…

  • Policy Analysis
    LevantUS Foreign Policy

    US Military Presence in the Middle East: Deterrence and Retaliation

    The United States has recently bolstered its military presence in the Middle East as the Israeli war on Gaza escalated. Bolstering this presence is meant to de…

  • From our Affiliates
    EgyptConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Egypt and the War on Gaza: Two Discourses, One Policy

    Nov 9, 2023Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

    Since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, Egypt’s response has received more attention than that of other Arab states due to its regio…

  • Policy Analysis
    SyriaRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Does Syria Have a Role in the Israel-Hamas Conflict?

    Nov 6, 2023Patricia Karam

    As the war between Israel and Hamas rages, the Middle East is bracing for a wider, multi-front regional conflict that will have serious repercussions for the g…

  • Viewpoint
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Nasrallah Steers Clear of War

    Nov 3, 2023Imad K. Harb

    Where is Hezbollah and its General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah? This was a natural refrain over almost the last four weeks, voiced by many observers and partisa…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Jordan Sees the War on Gaza in Existential Terms

    Nov 2, 2023Curtis Ryan

    Like other countries in the Middle East and around the world, Jordan has been rocked to its very core by the devastating news about the Gaza Strip and the late…

  • From our Affiliates
    LebanonConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Hezbollah and the 2023 Israeli War on Gaza

    Nov 2, 2023Adham Saouli

    Hezbollah’s silence about its politico-military intentions in the ongoing war in Gaza has disappointed the movement’s supporters, irritated its enemies, and ke…

  • Fresh Take
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Hezbollah and the War on Israel

    Oct 31, 2023

    Imad K. Harb argues that Hezbollah is unlikely to open a second front against Israel due to numerous economic and political considerations in Lebanon and the r…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Gaza and the Harbingers of Future Conflict

    Oct 30, 2023Nabeel A. Khoury

    The shock of civilian deaths in the latest Israel-Hamas conflagration is both a marker and a warning. It is a marker because for the first time Palestinians to…

  • Policy Analysis
    LevantRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Erdoǧan’s Calculations as the Israel-Gaza Conflict Escalates

    Oct 25, 2023Mustafa Gurbuz

    On October 20, during Friday prayers at the historic Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul, Ali Erbas, the head of Turkey's state-run religious affairs directorate, …

  • Policy Analysis
    LevantConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Will Saudi Arabia Renew the “Arab Peace Initiative” as the Middle East Seethes?

    Oct 23, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    Whether Hamas’s October 7 assault has ended whatever prospects existed for forging diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia remains to be seen. The…

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelUS Foreign Policy

    The War on Gaza: Deterrence or Inching toward Direct US Involvement?

    Oct 17, 2023Khalil E. Jahshan

    The official American position has passed through three phases in less than ten days. First, like Israel itself, Washington and its western allies suffered fro…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    On the Limits of Iran’s Policy of “Maximum Tactical Flexibility”

    Oct 13, 2023Daniel Brumberg

    At some point, the tactical balls Tehran has been juggling could fall to the ground with unpredictable or dangerous strategic results.

  • Viewpoint
    Palestine/IsraelConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    The Unlikelihood of a Hezbollah-Israel War

    Oct 13, 2023Imad K. Harb

    As Israel turns to punish the Gaza Strip and its people for the Hamas attack on October 7, speculation arises as to whether the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation will …

  • Policy Analysis
    Palestine/IsraelRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Saudi-Israeli Normalization and the Hamas Attack

    When Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) sat down on September 20 with Brett Baier of Fox News for his first English-language television inter…