Arab & Islamic Politics

Join us for a special conversation with His Excellence Youssef Raggi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants of the Republic of Lebanon. Watch live starting at 12:00 noon EST (1700 GMT) on Tuesday, December 23, 2025.

The transitional leadership can claim several successes, but a shadow government, opaque economic practices, and uneven accountability for former regime crimes could undermine progress.

With President Trump recently pledging to help Saudi Arabia and other regional partners broker a ceasefire, his administration should focus on pressuring the external spoilers who have fueled the fighting.

An in-depth look at the legal regime that Syria's transitional authorities have put in place to deal with religious minorities, focusing on how its policies have played out in a climate of ongoing violence and public distrust.

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.

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.

Damascus has already taken steps toward this end, but intensive international economic assistance and political mediation will still be vital—the latter drawing on relevant elements from Iraq’s governing model.

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.

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.