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How to End the War in Gaza for Good

Matthew Levitt

A Palestinian man in Gaza releases pigeons

The momentum created by phase one of the peace plan will eventually fade, so the Trump administration must work quickly with its partners to establish clarity on complex issues like disarming Hamas and securing Gaza, and on identifying the actors to implement them.

Dennis Ross

Palestinians celebrate news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October 2025 - source: Reuters

The Gaza "First Phase" Agreement: Assessments and Implications

Five experts and former high-level officials discuss the gamut of opportunities and risks created by the Trump administration’s diplomatic achievement.

Trump’s Mideast Deal Is Just the Beginning of His Role

Michael Herzog
David Makovsky
Nickolay Mladenov
Neomi Neumann
Ghaith al-Omari

Photo showing Gaza residents spinning sparklers at the start of Ramadan, March 2025.

Executing the president’s ambitious plan will require an army of experts in areas ranging from military command-and-control to community engagement and rehabilitation.

Oct 9, 2025

From Discord to the Streets: Gen Z’s Moment in the Middle East

Robert Satloff

Institute Expertise on Arab-Israeli Relations

Dennis Ross

A diplomat with decades of experience in U.S. Middle East policy in the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Obama administrations, Ambassador Dennis Ross is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Dana Stroul

A policy practitioner with extensive experience within the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government, Dana Stroul is Director of Research and Kassen Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute.

Ghaith al-Omari

The former director of the American Task Force on Palestine, Ghaith al-Omari served as advisor to the negotiating team during the 1999–2001 permanent-status talks in addition to holding various other positions within the Palestinian Authority.

David Makovsky

A veteran journalist, author, academic, and diplomat, David Makovsky is the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations.

Recent Institute Analysis

Ships of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet on exercise in the Persian Gulf

No Real Alternative: Why the Gulf Will Rely on the U.S.

Gulf leaders know that neither China, Russia, nor a “Mideast NATO” can replace the scale, capability, and strategic commitments that Washington brings, though they are still looking to recalibrate the partnership somewhat following Israel’s Qatar strike.

October 2025

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James Jeffrey
Elizabeth Dent

Moroccan youth protest in Rabat in 2025 - source: Reuters

Facing an uncertain economic future and fed up with corruption and mismanagement, young people in countries from Morocco to Iran have begun voicing demands for more responsive leadership and a more open society.

How Renewed Oil Flows from the ITP Could Benefit U.S.-Iraq-Turkey Relations

Holly Dagres
Sabina Henneberg

A worker inspects oil pipes near Turkey's Mediterranean Coast - source: Reuters

Maps & Graphics

The potential economic and strategic benefits of reopening the northern Iraqi pipeline are clear, but the agreement still faces bureaucratic, political, and security challenges before exports can resume in earnest.

Oct 7, 2025

Time to Unify the Kurdish Northeast with the Rest of Syria

Noam Raydan
Soner Cagaptay

Ongoing delays in implementing their integration agreements threaten to derail the entire post-Assad national project, but the Kurds and Damascus don’t need to solve all of their core issues right away—they just need to take a well-defined set of urgent confidence-building steps.

Oct 7, 2025

Fighting Pirates and Terror: The Development of the Puntland Maritime Police Force, 2010-2023

James Jeffrey
Devorah Margolin

Officers of the Puntland Marine Police Force patrol the Red Sea in 2024 - source: Reuters

An expert traces the PMPF’s evolution from a maritime-focused entity to a potent counterterrorism force, exploring why it has been more effective than other local forces.

October 2025

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Ido Levy

Study: Leveraging Sanctions to Change Tehran's Strategic Calculus

Four Keys for Iran Snapback Implementation

Inevitable attempts by Tehran to rebuild its nuclear and missile programs will require a U.S.-led campaign to track the regime’s proliferation activities and block transfers of related materials.

Oct 8, 2025

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Richard Nephew

In-Depth Report: The Abraham Accords at Five Years

Netanyahu, Trump, and Foreign Ministers Zayani (Bahrain) and Abdullah bin Zayed (UAE) at the Abraham Accords ceremony, Sep 15, 2020.

Maps & Graphics

Resilience and Roadblocks:

The Abraham Accords at Five Years

The architecture behind Arab-Israel normalization has survived the war years, but expansion to other countries will require a credible embrace of diplomacy, along with regional collaboration to shape Gaza’s future.

Sep 11, 2025

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David Makovsky

Recent Webcasts: Expert Policy Conversations

The Gaza "First Phase" Agreement: Assessments and Implications

Five experts and former high-level officials discuss the gamut of opportunities and risks created by the Trump administration’s diplomatic achievement.

Michael Herzog
David Makovsky
Nickolay Mladenov
Neomi Neumann
Ghaith al-Omari

A memorial in Tel Aviv to the victims of the OCtober 7 Hamas terror attacks - source: Reuters

October 7, Two Years On: Repercussions for Israel, the Middle East, and U.S. Policy

An Emirati official and an Israeli expert join two former U.S. officials to discuss the ongoing aftershocks of the Hamas attack, including the revised prospects for peace amid the Trump administration's new diplomatic push.

Oct 7, 2025

Yossi Klein Halevi
Ali al-Nuaimi
Dana Stroul
Dennis Ross

Recognizing “Palestine”: Rationale, Expectations, Implications

An Israeli legal expert, a Palestinian political activist, and a French journalist explore the many shortcomings of recognition, including its failure to address Israeli fears and promote reform in the PA.

Sep 19, 2025

Access the interactive map.

Tal Becker
Samer Sinijlawi
Isabelle Lasserre

Interactive Map: ISIS Global Activity

Under the leadership of jihadism scholar Aaron Zelin, a team of researchers at The Washington Institute has built the Islamic State Select Worldwide Activity Map, an interactive tool that provides a more accessible way to search, track, and understand the organization’s global reach. It represents the most comprehensive public archive of the group’s attack data, media output, government designations, and legal cases — information that is becoming invaluable as IS affiliates disperse into a wider range of jurisdictions and the U.S. government continues shifting resources away from the global counterterrorism fight.

Iranian External Operations Map and Timeline

Access this powerful interactive tool, which maps over forty-five years of Iranian clandestine operations around the globe.

Recently in Fikra Forum

Fikra Forum

The IMF’s Lebanon Framework: Balancing State Debt with Depositor Rights

So far, the proposals presented to Lebanon’s central bank risk prolonging rather than solving the country’s financial and economic woes.

Oct 1, 2025

Facing Fiscal Pressures: Iraq’s Struggle for Reform Ahead of the 2025 Election

Samara Azzi

Photo of an oil facility in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Fikra Forum

Baghdad’s oil dependency is a risk for long-term stability, but making the necessary changes will mean confronting political elites who benefit from the status quo.

Sep 18, 2025