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Military & Security

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U.S. soldiers at an Iraqi base after a rocket attack by Iran-backed militias
Video
Brief Analysis
U.S. Strategy Toward Iran: Restoring Deterrence, Enabling Diplomacy
Three experts discuss how Washington can manage escalation and catalyze diplomacy while still using its military instruments to apply pressure.
Feb 14, 2020
◆
  • Michael Eisenstadt
  • Kori Schake
  • David Deptula
Brief Analysis
Death of AQAP Leader Shows the Group’s Fragmentation—and Durability
Although the Yemeni terrorist franchise has splintered and weakened in recent years, its fragments may be adapting to new conflict conditions, raising the risk of a comeback.
Feb 14, 2020
◆
  • Elisabeth Kendall
Brief Analysis
Establishing a Response Ratio for Iranian and Proxy Attacks
Enhancing deterrence and protecting Americans in Iraq and Syria requires a more formalized system for rationing out retaliatory strikes at the proper intensity, time, and place.
Feb 13, 2020
◆
  • Michael Knights
Brief Analysis
The UN Exposes Houthi Reliance on Iranian Weapons
In addition to dispelling any lingering notion that last year’s Aramco attack came from Yemen, the report documents Iran’s efforts to help the rebels acquire advanced missiles, weapons components, and training.
Feb 13, 2020
◆
  • Farzin Nadimi
Brief Analysis
Turkey’s Options for Pressuring Russia in Idlib Are Limited
Weighty domestic concerns and geopolitical fears will likely keep Erdogan from pushing too hard against the current Russian-Syrian campaign, but the parties may yet broker a temporary deal to carve the province in half.
Feb 11, 2020
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay
Maps & Graphics
Brief Analysis
Latest Battle for Idlib Could Send Another Wave of Refugees to Europe
Various displacement scenarios may unfold as the fighting escalates, each carrying a high risk of negative humanitarian and economic consequences even if the parties live up to their promises.
Feb 10, 2020
◆
  • Fabrice Balanche
Brief Analysis
UN Panel Highlights Command-and-Control Issues in Yemen
The latest Panel of Experts report shines a much-needed light on operational control issues that will likely complicate postwar efforts to unify the country’s sundry armed forces.
Feb 7, 2020
◆
  • Elana DeLozier
Video
Brief Analysis
The Persistent Threat from the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda: The View from the UN
The head of the UN team charged with monitoring each group assesses their prospects for bouncing back and recommends further steps that governments can take to counter them.
Feb 6, 2020
◆
  • Edmund Fitton-Brown
◆ Counterterrorism Lecture Series
Maps & Graphics
In-Depth Reports
Idlib and Its Environs:
Narrowing Prospects for a Rebel Holdout
During the war years in Syria, the northwest, specifically Idlib, has become a site of heavy internal displacement. Observers on the ground recognize the green buses traveling to Idlib carrying migrants who have refused reconciliation agreements with the Damascus regime. Since around 2014, a range of jihadist, Islamist, and Salafi
Feb 5, 2020
◆
  • Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
Brief Analysis
Continuity vs. Overreach in the Trump Peace Plan (Part 2): Security, Refugees, and Narratives
By granting Israel much more say over the sovereignty of a future Palestinian state and its ability to absorb refugees, the document may undermine the administration’s ability to build an international coalition behind its policies.
Feb 4, 2020
◆
  • Ghaith al-Omari
Video
Brief Analysis
Shia Militias in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon Post-Soleimani
Will the various regional militias once controlled by Qasem Soleimani continue to take sometimes-unwanted direction from Tehran after his death? Read or watch a spirited conversation with three experts.
Jan 30, 2020
◆
  • Michael Knights
  • Phillip Smyth
  • Hanin Ghaddar
Video
Brief Analysis
The New Status Quo in Northeast Syria: Humanitarian and Security Implications
Three leading experts assess the current balance of power and its potential effects on counterterrorism, refugee resettlement, governance, economics, and other crucial issues.
Jan 29, 2020
◆
  • Wladimir van Wilgenburg
  • Gonul Tol
  • Dana Stroul
Articles & Testimony
Soleimani Is Dead: The Road Ahead for Iranian-Backed Militias in Iraq
Iraqis have expressed broad political, religious, and public support for checking the militias more quickly, so the U.S. government should take several steps toward that end.
Jan 27, 2020
◆
  • Michael Knights
Russian president Vladimir Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov
Brief Analysis
Russia’s Growing Interests in Libya
As in other conflict zones, Moscow cares little about reaching a peace deal so long as it can outmaneuver the West strategically while securing port and energy access—with private contractors playing an increasingly important role.
Jan 24, 2020
◆
  • Anna Borshchevskaya
Brief Analysis
Iranian Succession and the Impact of Soleimani’s Death
The general’s peerless domestic stature would have served a crucial mediatory role during the eventual transition to Khamenei’s successor, so his death brings significant uncertainty to that process.
Jan 23, 2020
◆
  • Mehdi Khalaji
Articles & Testimony
The New Iranian General to Watch
The regime has promoted a hardened veteran of the Lebanon front, raising questions about the IRGC’s next steps following Soleimani's death.
Jan 23, 2020
◆
  • Matthew Levitt
Iranian rockets and flag
Brief Analysis
Lifting the Arms Restrictions on Iran: What Will and Won’t Change
UN limits on Iranian weapons transactions will expire in a few short months, and even snapback sanctions may be insufficient to prevent proliferation of dangerous arms to and from the regime.
Jan 23, 2020
◆
  • Farzin Nadimi
Brief Analysis
Who Is Mohammad Hossein-Zadeh Hejazi, the New Deputy Commander of Iran’s Qods Force?
The general’s background includes often-buried links to the pre-revolutionary MEK, along with a sobering record of transforming the Basij into a fine-tuned engine of domestic repression and organized vigilantism.
Jan 22, 2020
◆
  • Ali Alfoneh
Brief Analysis
Expediting Evidence of Iranian Attacks: The Aramco Case
Internal components that are common across Iran’s illicit weapons transfers and domestic manufacturing industry can help investigators link the regime to attacks in the region.
Jan 21, 2020
◆
  • Tim Michetti
Brief Analysis
Making the Most of the Berlin Conference on Libya
If the latest conference is to succeed, the principal actors stoking the civil war must endorse a genuine ceasefire and a return to Libyan internal dialogue.
Jan 17, 2020
◆
  • Ben Fishman

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Military and Security Studies Program

The Washington Institute's Military and Security Studies Program has established itself as an unrivaled source of reliable, incisive, and forward-looking analysis concerning several of the most critical national-security challenges facing the United States today: The U.S. military role in the Middle East, Iran's nuclear program and its proxy armies, the ongoing conflict is in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, the regional proliferation of missiles and weapons of mass destruction, the security dimensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and many other security issues on the frontline of the U.S. policymaking agenda.

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Featured experts

Michael Eisenstadt
Michael Eisenstadt
Michael Eisenstadt is the Kahn Senior Fellow and director of The Washington Institute's Military and Security Studies Program.
Michael Knights
Michael Knights
Michael Knights is the Jill and Jay Bernstein Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute and cofounder of the Militia Spotlight platform, which offers in-depth analysis of developments related to Iran-backed militias.
Grant Rumley
Grant Rumley
Grant Rumley is the Meisel-Goldberger Senior Fellow and Director of the Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation Program on Great Power Competition and the Middle East at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Elizabeth Dent - source: The Washington Institute
Elizabeth Dent
Elizabeth Dent is a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where she focuses on U.S. foreign and defense policy toward the Gulf states, Iraq, and Syria.
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