Policy Analysis

Islamic State threats in the border region necessitate shared efforts between Baghdad and Syria’s new leadership as coalition forces withdraw, but Iraq’s November 11 election and internal divisions over engaging with Damascus are blocking progress.

A distinguished panel of experts and veteran diplomats sets the stage for the president’s historic White House visit, examining critical U.S., Israeli, and Syrian issues as well as lessons from past diplomatic efforts.

A Lebanese legislator explains why disarming Hezbollah and discussing peace terms with Israel is so crucial to his country’s future, while a separate expert panel discusses the roadblocks to progress.

Undermining the group in Lebanon requires targeting its networks abroad.

Two regional political experts join a former U.S. ambassador to discuss how the final campaign push is shaping up and what the outcome could hold for U.S. interests.

As the Trump administration considers delisting Syria, it must maximize the chances of success while preparing for the possibility of failure.

Leaders in Tehran are saying they won the June war and can stand up to Israel, leaving U.S. policymakers with the tricky task of how to stand up to Iran.

Thirty years after Rabin’s assassination, Israel is ignoring the crucial Palestinian lessons handed down by its most intellectually honest statesman.

While Sudani leverages his position as prime minister to pursue another term, Iran and its militia proxies increasingly favor a weaker leader who won’t challenge their influence.

After a failed attempt to rescue a soldier kidnapped by Hamas, the prime minister refused to deflect blame onto other soldiers or their commanders.

The Gaza ceasefire is a chance to cement Israel’s normalization with the rest of the Arab world, and perhaps reopen a path toward wider peace diplomacy with the Palestinians.

While the “GenZ 212” movement emerged from protests over maternal deaths and government neglect, it has evolved into a decentralized, quickly mobilizable digital network that continues to highlight Morocco’s governance problems.

A powerful new documentary on Henry Kissinger would have benefited much from a deeper assessment of how his overarching foreign policy strategy affected generation-spanning conflicts in the Middle East, Asia, and elsewhere.

With Hamas already regrouping, U.S. officials must help craft targeted language that empowers the Board of Peace to oversee a technocratic administration and stabilization force, with the goal of quickly filling the territory’s governance and security vacuum.

Urgent U.S. action is needed to ensure that Hamas and its adherents do not find a backdoor into the various bodies that will govern the Strip, while simultaneously addressing the genuine dilemmas confronting leaders in Cairo and other Arab capitals.

Beijing’s latest policy initiative is vague, but this same quality could yield diplomatic clout and unite countries whose interests may otherwise diverge from China’s.

As phase two of the ceasefire nears, the PA remains the only viable organization that can replace Hamas in governing Gaza.

Given South Korea’s willingness to offer technology transfer, local production arrangements, and politically flexible partnerships, it has become an attractive alternative to Western and Russian suppliers, presenting both opportunities and competitive challenges for U.S. policy in the region.

Pursuing even incremental steps will be difficult in a country long dominated by Iran’s chief regional proxy, but the two countries’ leaders have cracked the door open for future diplomacy.

How can the international community avoid making the same mistakes it did after the revolution, when perceptions that the country’s democratic transition was secure led to economic complacency?