All Policy Analysis by Anna Borshchevskaya

The U.S. ambassador to Tunisia joins three Washington Institute experts to discuss the evolution of great power competition in North Africa.

Key Middle East actors tend to distrust the U.S. narrative about the war and conclude they can reap better economic benefits from Russia, so Washington should do more to get them off the sidelines.

The alliance has already been shifting toward greater engagement with the Middle East and Africa, but various maritime and infrastructure threats require more urgent attention, as does the broader problem of countering Moscow’s narrative.

Washington can demonstrate its decisive edge in areas like climate change remediation and economic development, while highlighting the many dangers posed by partnership with Russia and China.

The Kremlin’s legacy of ties to Hezbollah, the Taliban, and other terrorist actors should disabuse Washington of any hope for common cause.

New regional and international factors are creating conditions conducive to ending their decades-long conflict, with potentially important consequences for Iran, the Ukraine war, and Turkey.

Russia’s arms sales, military relationships, and paramilitary activity across the region remain central to expanding its local influence and boosting its anti-Western strategic interests.

If Kyiv does not receive military assistance soon, it may find itself in something worse than a stalemate—the scales would tip decisively in Russia’s favor.

As Russia leans into support for Israel’s enemies, officials should look for ways to show Moscow that the threat of escalation goes both ways—including through outreach to Ukraine.

There is no evidence Moscow knew about the October 7 attack, but it has provided support to Hamas and is taking advantage of the resultant blows to U.S. interests.

The antiaircraft system poses a manageable risk to Israeli operations along its northern border, but Washington must show Moscow and its associates that any benefits to such escalation are not worth the costs.

The Russian leader and Hamas share the goal of undermining liberal democracies, as correctly pointed out by President Biden.

As Russian forces make another push for Ukraine’s heartland, Western officials need to recognize the connections between the Gaza crisis and Moscow’s wider strategic goals.

An in-depth look at how regional states have responded to Putin's invasion of Ukraine—by their actions as much as their words.

The conflict over Karabakh had been the longest-running in the post-Soviet space, with major implications for Moscow's strategic mindset in Ukraine and other regions.

Putin views the Black Sea as an important springboard for projecting power into the Middle East, Europe, and the Mediterranean, and the West should push back accordingly.

An entrenched military junta could jeopardize America’s primary CT partner in West Africa, create ripple effects for security beyond the Sahel, and give Russia’s Wagner Group a new opening on the continent.

Seventeen Russian vetoes have hobbled the council’s ability to keep humanitarian assistance flowing, so Washington and its allies should look to the General Assembly instead—or take matters into their own hands on the Turkish border.

Russia’s domestic military crisis could hold significant consequences for its regional operations, from heightening the risk of clashes with U.S. forces in Syria to putting a public face on its destabilizing activities in Libya.

An in-depth look at how Russian leaders have played the Kurdish card over the past two centuries, including recent engagement in Syria and Iraq.