Policy Analysis

After twenty years of investing in unique and powerful counterterrorism tools, the U.S. government now risks falling behind the times by allowing these tools to direct its strategy.

The political fallout from a recent speech by the Lebanese Armed Forces commander gives Washington and its partners a golden opportunity to prod the country from crisis management toward actual solutions.

Three veteran counterterrorism practitioners from recent administrations take stock of America’s overall strategy, foreign posture, and domestic threats at the dawn of the Biden presidency.

A closer look at the attack patterns, ideological disagreements, and shifting strategies of the world’s foremost jihadi organizations over the past year.

Washington can do much to help the kingdom close its serious air defense gaps, whereas acquiring Russian S-400s would be militarily insufficient and strategically disastrous.

Losing Marib would discredit and debilitate the multilateral peace effort, so the United States should facilitate more energetic Saudi and Emirati support to the city’s defense.

Despite accusations by leftist politicians, Ennahda’s commitment to national security has not wavered since it turned on the jihadi movement, but the party still needs to define what it means by “Muslim Democracy.”

To expand its strategic influence on the Mediterranean, Moscow is exploiting Beirut and Hezbollah’s crisis at a time when the West seems uncertain about how much to intervene.

The muqawama are trying to put squabbles over the utility of convoy bombings behind them and are making a concerted attempt to demonstrate inter- and intra-group unity.

Simply waiting for Russia to decline has not prevented the Kremlin's aggressive and destabilizing behavior in various regions, and may even have encouraged it.

The dalliance between the Assad family and Iran’s Shia clerics began in the 1970s. But whereas the Syrian leader held leverage in those days predating Iran’s Islamic Revolution, the tables have now been turned.

A Syrian scholar and expatriate lays out the legacy of terror under the Assads and urges the Biden administration to prioritize the country’s sundry crises.

Saudi Arabia used what Congress might consider “offensive weapons” to successfully defend major oil terminals, but a much more devastating attack is inevitable if Houthi missile and drone attacks persist.

The deterioration seen in recent years has diplomatic, political, economic, and even personal roots, and their collective effect has been to hold back everyone’s interests, including Washington’s.

Societal transformation in Iraq requires motivated, capable young people who can redefine the status quo in their country.

The administration needs to demonstrate that its pursuit of nuclear negotiations will not inhibit the lengths it will go to counter Tehran’s regional provocations.

New polls show that Iraqis want institutional change, but they are losing faith in elections as a real means towards reform.

The pandemic has not ended terrorism in Jordan, and ISIS is still a significant threat.

American withdrawal would doom efforts against the Islamic State, undermine confidence in Baghdad, exacerbate Iraq's economic crisis, and deliver the country completely to Tehran.

Two former U.S. ambassadors and a Syrian opposition official examine the many diplomatic, geopolitical, and humanitarian lessons the conflict holds for the Biden administration.