U.S. Policy

A senior State Department official, a Baghdad bureau chief, and an Iraqi scholar explore the opportunities and increasingly desperate dangers facing U.S. policy toward the country.

The Security Council’s decision to renew the cross-border mechanism averted a humanitarian disaster, but it leaves Russia with more leverage than ever to advance its political goals in Syria.

Gulf squabbles over production quotas highlight the industry’s uncertain future, but in the meantime Washington may have to deal with heightened pressure at home.

Hosting Prince Khalid is a good look for the bilateral relationship, but discussions may prove difficult given complications over defense sales, Israeli normalization, OPEC infighting, and continued fallout over the Khashoggi affair.

Cross-border access into Syria has become a stress test for Putin and Biden’s nascent relationship, so what exactly will it take for their governments to reach a durable agreement?

Tehran is increasingly relying on its vast regional propaganda machine to pursue its anti-American objectives, but policymakers need to be simultaneously more precise and more comprehensive in how they counter it.

U.S. website seizures are unlikely to have much direct impact on Iran’s media, nuclear, or terrorist activities, but they should serve as another wake-up call about the regime’s ultimate objectives and modus operandi.

To some, America's partnership with the SDF exemplified an economy-of-force effort that minimized U.S. casualties and wrested control of northeast Syria from the Islamic State. To others, it was a cautionary tale about a U.S. military hoodwinked into working with a terrorist group.

Amid talk of a potential new Security Council resolution, veteran diplomats and aid practitioners debate the future of humanitarian assistance to needy Syrians.