Skip to main content
TWI logo The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
logo
wordmark
Homepage

Main navigation

  • Analysis
  • Experts
  • About
  • Support
  • Maps & Multimedia
Trending:
  • Military & Security
  • Proliferation
  • Israel
  • Iran
  • Lebanon
  • Syria

Regions & Countries

  • Egypt
  • Gulf States
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Israel
  • Jordan
  • Lebanon
  • Middle East
  • North Africa
  • Palestinians
  • Syria
  • Turkey

Issues

  • Arab & Islamic Politics
  • Arab-Israeli Relations
  • Democracy & Reform
  • Energy & Economics
  • Great Power Competition
  • Gulf & Energy Policy
  • Military & Security
  • Peace Process
  • Proliferation
  • Terrorism
  • U.S. Policy
TWI English
TWI Arabic: اللغة العربية Fikra Forum

Breadcrumb

  • Policy Analysis

Military & Security

Policy Analysis on Military & Security

Filter by:

Brief Analysis
Turkey's Regional Charm Offensive: Motives and Prospects
After years of foreign policy setbacks, Ankara is trying to mend fences with Israel, Egypt, Iran, and Russia, and the potential implications for the United States are mostly beneficial -- assuming the Turks can actually pull it off.
Jun 27, 2016
◆
  • Soner Cagaptay
  • James Jeffrey
Brief Analysis
Takfiris in Tehran: The Sectarian Face of Iranian Counterterrorism
While the severity of the Sunni extremist threat inside Iran is debatable, the regime's recent operations against suspected terrorists highlight its pattern of exploiting sectarian sentiment to bolster its regional adventurism.
Jun 24, 2016
◆
  • Mehdi Khalaji
Brief Analysis
Russian Views on the Middle East: A Trip Report
Two Washington Institute experts share their findings from recent visits to Russia, where they discussed a wide range of regional issues with current and former officials, leading analysts, and other citizens.
Jun 3, 2016
◆
  • James Jeffrey
  • Anna Borshchevskaya
Maps & Graphics
Brief Analysis
Raqqa Will Not Fall Until Arab Tribes Fight the Islamic State
The tribes in eastern Syria have been driven in different directions by the Assad regime, outside actors, and their own self-interest, leaving the coalition with a complex web to untangle before it can fully uproot IS.
Jun 3, 2016
◆
  • Fabrice Balanche
Brief Analysis
Iran's Air Force Overshadowed by the IRGC
A recent crash highlights the air force's struggles to maintain its readiness and budget at a time when Revolutionary Guard leaders are pushing for a deterrence posture based solely on their own ballistic missile arsenal.
May 27, 2016
◆
  • Farzin Nadimi
Brief Analysis
The Aerial Delivery of Humanitarian Aid in Syria: Options and Constraints
While airlift operations may provide temporary relief for a number of besieged and hard-to-reach communities, urgently enhancing the military capabilities of moderate opposition groups is ultimately the only way to effectively counter the Assad regime's use of food as a weapon.
May 27, 2016
◆
  • Michael Eisenstadt
Brief Analysis
The PKK Could Spark Turkish-Russian Military Escalation
Russia and Syria's dormant ties with the group have been reawakened by the civil war, raising the prospect of dangerous weapons proliferation and potential escalation into direct conflict with Turkey.
May 25, 2016
◆
  • Andrew J. Tabler
  • Soner Cagaptay
Articles & Testimony
A New Formula in the Battle for Fallujah
The campaign is Iraq's latest attempt to push militia and coalition forces into a single battlespace, and lessons from past efforts have seemingly improved their tactics.
May 25, 2016
◆
  • Michael Knights
Brief Analysis
The Islamic State Is Targeting Syria's Alawite Heartland -- and Russia
The group's choice of targets is a clear sign of its intention to inflame Sunni/Alawite tensions, raise the price of Moscow's intervention, and assert its symbolic leadership over the rebellion.
May 24, 2016
◆
  • Fabrice Balanche
Articles & Testimony
The Southern Front in Syria
By supporting rebel progress in the south, Washington could put more pressure on Assad and his allies at relatively low cost, and perhaps turn the wavering Druze fully against the regime.
May 24, 2016
◆
  • Ehud Yaari
Articles & Testimony
The U.A.E. Approach to Counterinsurgency in Yemen
The conflict in Yemen cannot fairly be described as a singular war. The main war is being fought between a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states who back the Sunni-dominated internationally recognized government against Shia clans called the Houthis. But amid this, another war is being fought against Al-Qaeda in the
May 23, 2016
◆
  • Michael Knights
Articles & Testimony
The Liberation of Fallujah, the Fall of Baghdad
Securing the Iraqi capital won’t be easy, but keeping Baghdad safe from the Islamic State is the only way to ensure it doesn’t fall to Shiite militias.
May 23, 2016
◆
  • Michael Knights
Articles & Testimony
Mission Failure: A Book Review
Michael Mandelbaum's Mission Failure: America and the World in the Post-Cold War Era is an impressive book. As a history of U.S. foreign policy in, as he terms it, its "fourth" or "post-cold war" era, from 1991 to 2014, it's a competent work. But as an analysis of the driving
May 20, 2016
◆
  • James Jeffrey
Brief Analysis
Turkey's War of Attrition With the Islamic State: The Rocket Threat
Ankara's terrorist adversaries have expanded their destructive reach with mobile rocket launchers and other formidable weapons, so deterring the threat will require a similarly robust Turkish approach to procurement, development, and deployment of various military systems.
May 17, 2016
◆
  • Can Kasapoglu
Articles & Testimony
How to Prevent Sectarian Backlash from Baghdad Bombings
Continued bombings could bring a devastating flood of sectarian attacks to Baghdad and delay the battle for Mosul, so the coalition should help Iraqis address the capital's longstanding vulnerability.
May 17, 2016
◆
  • Sajad Jiyad
  • Michael Knights
Brief Analysis
The MFO 2.0
Although improved Egyptian-Israeli cooperation and enhanced remote-monitoring technologies will ease the pain of the planned drawdown in Sinai peacekeepers, the situation will only worsen unless Cairo adopts a more appropriate counterinsurgency strategy.
May 16, 2016
◆
  • David Schenker
Brief Analysis
Hezbollah's Biggest Loss to Date in Syria
Mustafa Badreddine's death will hurt the group's operational efforts and morale in Syria, but it remains to be seen who it will blame for the attack and whether it will retaliate.
May 13, 2016
◆
  • Nadav Pollak
  • Matthew Levitt
Brief Analysis
The IRGC Morphs Into an Expeditionary Force
Funeral notices indicate that Iran has increased its use of IRGC Ground Forces in Syria to offset mounting losses by the elite Qods Force, and this pattern could signal a wider transformation in how the IRGC operates abroad.
May 12, 2016
◆
  • Ali Alfoneh
Maps & Graphics
Brief Analysis
The Battle for Deir al-Zour: A U.S.-Russian Bridge Against the Islamic State?
The survival of the regime enclave in Deir al-Zour is fundamental to the anti-IS fight, so Washington and Moscow's allies on the ground may need to race to its rescue sooner rather than later.
May 11, 2016
◆
  • Fabrice Balanche
Brief Analysis
Gulf Coalition Targeting AQAP in Yemen
Coalition units and allied Yemeni forces have fought a successful and timely campaign to stem the al-Qaeda affiliate's runaway growth in Yemen.
May 10, 2016
◆
  • Michael Knights
  • Alex Almeida

Pagination

  • Previous page ‹ Previous
  • First page « First
  • …
  • Page 81
  • Page 82
  • Page 83
  • Page 84
  • Current page 85
  • Page 86
  • Page 87
  • Page 88
  • Page 89
  • …
  • Last page Last »
  • Next page Next ›
Supported by the

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.

Sign Up for Email Updates from The Washington Institute

Never miss a breaking event on U.S. policy interests in the Middle East. Customize your subscription to our expert analysis, op-eds, live events, and special reports.

Sign up

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.
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 the Nathan and Esther K. Wagner 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.
Background image with TWI branding
logo
wordmark
Homepage

1111 19th Street NW - Suite 500
Washington D.C. 20036
Tel: 202-452-0650
Fax: 202-223-5364

Footer contact links

  • Contact
  • Press Room
  • Subscribe

The Washington Institute seeks to advance a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the Middle East and to promote the policies that secure them.

The Institute is a 501(c)3 organization; all donations are tax-deductible.

Footer quick links

  • About TWI
  • Support the Institute
  • Alumni

Social media

  • The Washington Institute on Facebook facebook
  • The Washington Institute on X x
  • The Washington Institute on YouTube youtube
  • The Washington Institute on LinkedIn linkedin

© 2025 All rights reserved.

Footer

  • Employment
  • Privacy Policy
  • Rights & Permissions