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Military & Security

Policy Analysis on Military & Security

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Brief Analysis
Iranian EFPs in the Gulf: An Emerging Strategic Risk
Tehran and its proxies have increased their efforts to provide armor-piercing explosive devices to Shiite cells in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and this game-changing escalation could pose even greater challenges if Riyadh takes further action in Syria.
Feb 23, 2016
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  • Michael Knights
Brief Analysis
Hezbollah Fatalities in the Syrian War
Analysis of funeral reports and other open-source data offers potentially revealing insights into the militia's combat losses in Syria, its shifting role in the war next door, and the security of its position back home in Lebanon.
Feb 22, 2016
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  • Ali Alfoneh
Articles & Testimony
The First Step Should Be to Create Buffer Zones in Syria
Any safe zones would need to be secured by the military forces of Syria’s neighbors, such as Turkey and Jordan, as well as by U.S. air and ground support.
Feb 22, 2016
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  • Andrew J. Tabler
Brief Analysis
A Turkish 'Secure Strip' in Syria: Domestic Concerns and Foreign Limitations
Although Ankara has the necessary parliamentary authorization and professional military capacity to establish a safe zone, it would still need Western intelligence help, air support, and diplomatic backing to cover the operation and deter Russian retaliation.
Feb 19, 2016
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  • Soner Cagaptay
  • Cem Yolbulan
Articles & Testimony
Russian Expectations for Post-Sanctions Iran
Joint support of Basher al-Assad's regime has highlighted Moscow and Tehran’s developing political alliance. In contrast, the level of economic cooperation between the two states has historically been very modest: 2014 trade between the two countries amounted to $1.68 billion and was just 0.2% of all Russian foreign trade. Yet
Feb 19, 2016
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  • Huseyn Panahov
United Nations headquarters building in New York - source: Reuters
Brief Analysis
Legal Justifications for a Safe Zone in Syria
UN Security Council Resolutions 2170, 2249, and 2254 offer ample grounds for establishing a zone to protect refugees and counter the Islamic State, but shaping the international diplomatic response would be paramount given the legal gray areas inherent in such action.
Feb 19, 2016
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  • James Jeffrey
Articles & Testimony
Safety First in Syria
However difficult it might be to implement safe zones after years of inaction, the humanitarian disaster will only grow without them, as will the threat to regional and European stability.
Feb 19, 2016
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  • Anna Borshchevskaya
Brief Analysis
Iran and Russia's Growing Defense Ties
The lifting of international sanctions and the region's vastly changing geopolitical environment have opened a window of opportunity for Tehran to buy potent arms from Russia and modernize its arsenal.
Feb 18, 2016
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  • Farzin Nadimi
Brief Analysis
Countering Russian and Assad Regime Responses to Safe Zones
For such zones to succeed, they must be backed with militarily enforced no-fly zones and a persuasive response to Moscow's inevitable small-scale violations and disinformation campaign.
Feb 17, 2016
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  • Anna Borshchevskaya
Brief Analysis
Intervention to Assist Fleeing Syrians: Who, What, Where, Why, and How
Establishment of humanitarian corridors, safe havens, safe zones, or buffer or no-fly zones could turn the tide of Syria's humanitarian crisis, but it could also pose numerous complications and create second- and third-order effects for the region.
Feb 16, 2016
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  • Col. Nora Marcos
TWI Series on Syrian Safe Havens/Zones
Understand the policy implications of humanitarian safe havens, safe zones, buffers, or no-fly zones in Syria with these assessments of the who, what, where, why, and how of the various options.
Feb 16, 2016
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  • Fabrice Balanche
  • Lt Col John R. Barnett
  • Anna Borshchevskaya
  • Nicholas Burns
  • Soner Cagaptay
  • Michael Eisenstadt
  • James Jeffrey
  • Col. Nora Marcos
  • Nadav Pollak
  • David Schenker
  • Andrew J. Tabler
Articles & Testimony
Russia's Grim Pattern in Syria
Once again, Moscow has expressed agreement with the United States on the broad principles for easing the Syrian conflict and then acted without regard to those principles.
Feb 16, 2016
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  • Dennis Ross
Brief Analysis
Desert Stretch: Saudi Arabia's Ambitious Military Operations
Riyadh's offer to deploy ground troops in Syria and reestablish air operations comes while its forces are still heavily committed in Yemen and a huge military exercise begins in the kingdom's north.
Feb 16, 2016
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  • Simon Henderson
Brief Analysis
The Worst of the Syrian Refugee Crisis Is Coming for Europe
The Assad regime's Russian-aided military campaign and the onset of spring augur another mass refugee flow into the EU, and the only surefire way to stop it is by addressing the root of the crisis inside Syria.
Feb 12, 2016
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  • Fabrice Balanche
Brief Analysis
Washington's Self-Deterrence Problem in Syria
If Moscow can get away with boldly flouting U.S. interests in a key American security zone such as the Middle East, where might it interfere next, and at what cost to the international security system?
Feb 11, 2016
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  • James Jeffrey
Articles & Testimony
What Vladimir Putin Is Really Up To in Syria
The last thing Putin wants is a U.S.-led safe haven inside Syria, since it would erode his leverage over Europe and raise the military costs of fighting on Assad's behalf.
Feb 9, 2016
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  • Dennis Ross
Video
Brief Analysis
The Future of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Mosul, Economic Crisis, and Self-Determination
A senior foreign policy advisor to Iraqi Kurdish President Barzani discusses the state of U.S.-Kurdish military cooperation, the situation in Iraq and Syria, Kurdistan's economic needs, and the region's future.
Feb 9, 2016
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  • Hemin Hawrami
  • David Pollock
  • Michael Knights
Maps & Graphics
Brief Analysis
The Battle of Aleppo Is the Center of the Syrian Chessboard
With ample Russian and Iranian help, regime forces have cut the rebels' main lifeline in the north, and they will likely steer their relentless steamroller to the west unless outside powers take action.
Feb 5, 2016
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  • Fabrice Balanche
Articles & Testimony
The Diplomatic Case for America to Create a Safe Zone in Syria
The potential risks of inaction -- including thousands more civilians killed, millions more refugees, the spillover of fighting into Turkey, Jordan, and Israel, and a Russian-Iranian military victory -- greatly outweigh the dangers of moving forward.
Feb 5, 2016
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  • Nicholas Burns
  • James Jeffrey
Articles & Testimony
Putin's Comment About Helping the Syrian Free Army
On 11 December 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the Russian Defense Ministry's expanded board meetings, where he said, for the first time according to Western press reports, that Russia is helping the Free Syrian Army -- an opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russia has supported Assad unequivocally since
Jan 31, 2016
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  • Anna Borshchevskaya

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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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