ایران

Tehran and its proxies have increased their efforts to provide armor-piercing explosive devices to Shiite cells in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and this game-changing escalation could pose even greater challenges if Riyadh takes further action in Syria.

The lifting of international sanctions and the region's vastly changing geopolitical environment have opened a window of opportunity for Tehran to buy potent arms from Russia and modernize its arsenal.

Successive White House administrations have tried to weaken the Iranian mullahs’ grip on the country through war, sanctions, and diplomatic isolation. Each policy has failed eminently, and a considerable list of U.S. officials expects more of the same from President Obama’s new strategy of ‘veiled’ diplomacy, which attempts to foster

The situation in the Middle East is beginning to resemble the Balkans: either the Balkans in the early 1990s, before Washington woke up and played its role as security leader, or the Balkans before World War I, when no one woke up.

Rather than postulating alternatives to centuries-old sectarian doctrines, Washington should focus on preventing exploitative actors from institutionalizing their violent vision through schools and bureaucracies.

If the Obama administration sees the nuclear agreement as a strategic win capable of transforming Tehran's hostility, then America's ability to deter and contain Iranian challenges will be eroded.

A bipartisan group of American diplomats, legislators, policymakers, and experts cites the need for vigilance in enforcing the nuclear deal and urges the administration to reject the idea of Iran as an ally in the anti-ISIL campaign.

The United States and its allies are more than up to the challenges posed by post-deal Iran, but they will need to focus on objectives rather than tactics, and engage in long-term planning rather than continuing their reactive, shorter-term approach.

In this new study, jihadi expert Aaron Y. Zelin provides a framework for understanding how the Islamic State goes from no control to full consolidation of control in a particular area. Three case studies show how this framework plays out ...