Policy Analysis

On January 24, 2020, Moqtada al-Sadr seized the reins of Iraqi politics. By taking charge of the Friday marches, he overshadowed the Iran-backed militias and showed up their comparative lack of numbers. Al-Sadr directed the protests away from the U.S. embassy, subsequently stating that embassies should be protected and all

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.

Designating corrupt businessmen and officials under the Global Magnitsky Act would offer a tangible response to the persistent anti-sectarian demands of Lebanese protesters.

This modest proposal—to broaden the scope of Holocaust remembrance by including the names of Muslims killed at Auschwitz—appeared this weekend in English and Arabic in Saudi, Egyptian, and Israeli media outlets.

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.

The Palestinian Hamas movement briefly captured renewed attention when Ismail Haniyeh, a leader from Gaza, received the Ayatollah’s honors at the funeral of Qasem Soleimani in Tehran. Yet for the past few years, it has been Yahya Sinwar—head of the Hamas Political Bureau in Gaza—who has consolidated his stature as

Whether they reveal a detailed plan or merely preview an aspirational document, U.S. officials still need to clarify their goals at a time when elections are looming and Palestinian participation seems highly unlikely.

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.

To ensure that new protests, new sanctions, and new political leadership wind up helping rather than hindering Iraqi sovereignty, Washington must handle upcoming developments with great care.

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.

The regime has promoted a hardened veteran of the Lebanon front, raising questions about the IRGC’s next steps following Soleimani's death.

One of the remarkable things about the spontaneous mass protests in Iraq that initially erupted in October 2019 was the fact that these protesters articulated their demands without any input from or involvement of Iraq’s political parties. Instead, civil activists used social media to express opinions and expectations without directives

With Israel preparing for an unprecedented third national election in March, domestic politics have been trapped in a kind of political stasis for almost a year since the original elections in April 2019. But demands for reform have not stopped, including the contentious question of crime and punishment in Israel

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.

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.

His troubling numbers could be accurate given Iran’s past JCPOA violations and large number of operational centrifuges.

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.

By triggering the nuclear deal’s dispute resolution mechanism, Britain, France, and Germany are opening diplomatic space that could help the United States and Iran return to the negotiating table.

Public anger is exploding over the regime’s mishandling of the airline tragedy, and the Supreme Leader seems to realize that his normal methods of extinguishing unrest and exploiting election cycles may not suffice.

The former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Harold Wilson, once opined: “A week is a long time in politics.” For politics in Iraq, a week is a very long time indeed. And if the past few weeks are anything to go by, we should brace ourselves for many more