All Policy Analysis by James Jeffrey

The latest NSS reiterates the president's longstanding aversion to military force, but his views are more problematic than ever in the wake of recent challenges to the global security order.

A serious alliance against ISIS built on Sunni Arab states and Turkey cannot hold together over the long term without a more forceful U.S. policy toward the Syrian regime.

As in other countries, no U.S. official is better placed to evaluate Yemen's current situation and make the decision to evacuate than the ambassador, and no one else will pay the same price if the decision is wrong.

Four Washington Institute fellows discuss what the president's address shows about his priorities in the Middle East, analyzing what he did and did not say and comparing his latest remarks to his past speeches.

The U.S. military has a great track record of winning on the battlefield, but it must do a better job of demanding clearer definitions of strategic victory from the political leadership, along with the means and time needed to achieve it.

Although Washington should have no illusions about resolving the region's wider problems, it can build on early successes against ISIS by making the commitments needed to fully defeat the group in Iraq and Syria, including a modest, enduring U.S. military presence.

If the United States and its allies fail to manage the Syria and Iraq crises, victorious "anti-order" actors such as Russia, Iran, and ISIS could usher in an unstable era similar to the late 1930s.

The spectacular success in early 2014 of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, an offshoot of al Qaeda in Iraq, is often blamed on the failure of the Obama administration to secure an American troop presence in Iraq beyond 2011. As the U.S. ambassador to Iraq in

An examination of allegations that the Obama administration’s failure to secure a long-term U.S. troop presence in Iraq after 2011 was the "original sin" that led to the ascendance of ISIS.

A veteran French official, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and a seasoned military expert discuss how and where to hit ISIS, and what victory against the group would mean.

Despite the authoritarian impulses of Turkey's long-governing AKP, the country's civil society has become too diverse for President Erdogan or any other single leader to control entirely.

President Obama is right that diplomacy should be America's lead option. But diplomacy needs help, be it military or economic

Washington Institute research explains the complexities of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).