All Policy Analysis by James Jeffrey

Damascus will not take the difficult steps to reconcile internal animosities and rebuild destroyed infrastructure unless outside supporters—led by the United States—speak with one voice about their expectations and red lines.

Full Kurdish integration in Syria is one of the most important projects in the Middle East, but Washington must ensure it is accomplished without further violence, and without blowing the activities of various foreign players out of proportion.

Washington Institute experts assess the immediate fallout of the Syrian government’s advance into SDF-held parts of the northeast, including mutual disinformation campaigns, implications for the Islamic State threat, the terms of new agreements with the Kurds, and the calculus of outside actors like the United States, Israel, and Turkey.

Watch video or read a summary of a special book launch event featuring a former secretary of defense and other veteran officials discussing the lessons learned from decades of American diplomacy and military efforts in the Middle East.

A veteran American diplomat offers a compelling, first-hand account of U.S. foreign policy and crisis management in the Middle East from 2004 to 2020.

In addition to providing discounted crude of a quality desired by American refiners, the resumption of oil flows via the ITP is already showing promise of furthering U.S. policy toward partners and adversaries alike.

A former U.S. envoy to Syria joins an expert on President Sharaa’s ruling faction to discuss how Damascus should approach governance issues one year after the fall of Assad.

Sudani did very well at the ballot box, but the peculiarities of Iraq’s long government formation process and the final distribution of parliamentary seats may leave the main Iran-backed coalition in the driver’s seat.

The Trump administration’s full-throated assurance of support for Qatar and willingness to pressure Israel on key issues could set a new benchmark for U.S. security relationships with the Gulf countries.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Gulf leaders know that neither China, Russia, nor a “Mideast NATO” can replace the scale, capability, and strategic commitments that Washington brings, though they are still looking to recalibrate the partnership somewhat following Israel’s Qatar strike.

A compilation of Washington Institute insights on the profoundly complex tasks ahead—from preventing a Hamas resurgence to promoting Palestinian political reform—and the states and mechanisms likely to carry them out.

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.

Whether Washington opts for complete withdrawal, a smaller, Kurdistan-based presence, or a 180-degree shift to business and energy initiatives, it needs to be mindful of the risks and keep the focus on America’s paramount strategic interests.

After seven months, the administration has shown that it is not isolationist, but it clearly prefers to rely much more heavily on regional partners than its predecessors did.

NGOs and foreign officials have already outlined many of the most crucial transitional governance and security issues that will arise during and after Israel’s eventual withdrawal—and all of them will require some degree of oversight and leadership from the Trump administration.

It is no exaggeration to say that the visit represents a transformation of Washington’s regional approach—including a rethink of the “pivot.”