Energy & Economics

Fifty years of rapid population growth in the Middle East is coming to an end. The Middle East is experiencing the same "demographic transition" to slow population growth that other areas have gone through. The immediate reason for the slower population growth is a fall in the number of children

Oxford Analytica published a "Daily Brief" article by Washington Institute senior fellow and director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence Matthew Levitt on March 3, 2009. The following is the executive conclusion of the article. Download the full text of the article. (PDF) With more activities out of

In the wake of the Gaza war, few tasks are more critical than providing much-needed humanitarian support to the residents of Gaza without inadvertently empowering Hamas. Unfortunately, one of the primary vehicles the U.S. government intends to use to provide newly pledged aid, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or

More than two weeks into the Israeli-Hamas war, the eyes of the world are narrowly focused on the crisis in Gaza. In the Middle East, however, it is not just the Palestinians and Israelis who are suffering, and it is not only Hamas which hopes to capitalize. Lost amid the

Download the complete text of this article (PDF). While mounting an individual terrorist attack may cost relatively little, money remains of critical importance to terrorist organizations. Without it, terrorist groups would be incapable of maintaining the broad infrastructure necessary to run an effective organization. Finding means to quickly and securely

The Bush administration looks at the trends it expects to affect the Middle East through the mid-2020s.

Saudi king Abdullah is in the United States this week to discuss issues of considerable interest to both countries. Tomorrow and Thursday, he is in New York City for an interfaith meeting he is sponsoring and which President Bush will be attending. On Friday and Saturday, the Saudi monarch will

Today, oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meet in Vienna to discuss a possible production cut. Originally planned for November, the meeting was brought forward because of falling oil prices. With the perilous state of world financial markets, seldom has an OPEC meeting been so

Featured presentations: Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Energy Dept. director of intelligence, on nuclear terrorism Donald Kerr, principal deputy DNI, on emerging threats and challenges in the Middle East Charles Allen, under-secretary of homeland security, on terrorism's 21st-century evolution Juan Zarate, deputy national security advisor, on U.S. successes and challenges in the war