Ships gather in waters off the Iranian island of Bandar Abbas along the Strait of Hormuz - source: Reuters
How to Isolate Tehran
To reopen the Strait of Hormuz after the latest dip in the Iran roller coaster, the Trump administration will need to marry renewed blockade efforts with a more collective-minded diplomatic approach.
Jul 17, 2026
  • Dennis Ross

Interactive Map: Maritime Attacks in the MENA Region

3 Things to Watch: The Iran Ceasefire

As the U.S.-Iran ceasefire shakes, here are three things former Pentagon official and Institute Meisel Family Senior Fellow Grant Rumley is watching: First, Iran's proxies. Tehran's regional network of terrorist groups and militias is battered but not gone. Second, will Washington shift its military targeting inland, away from coastal areas tied to the Strait of Hormuz? And third, what role will the Israelis play in new hostilities? 
 

Read more Institute analysis of Iran.

Video: America and the Middle East at 250 with Dr. Martin Kramer

Historian Martin Kramer, the Walter P. Stern Fellow at The Washington Institute, explains how America's early leaders navigated the republic's first encounters with the Middle East—and hears some echoes of today's policy dilemmas.

Arab Public Opinion 2014 to Today

Fikra Interactive Public Polling Platform Thumbnail
Maps & Graphics
TWI Interactive Polling Platform
Interactive datasets, from 2014 to today
Jun 30, 2022