Policy Analysis

Given the diplomatic vacuum that formed after the collapse of peace negotiations in 2014, the IDF has increasingly asserted itself as a stabilizer on Israeli-Palestinian issues and a guardian of democratic values at home.

Watch a pathbreaking public dialogue between senior national security leaders from two old adversaries - His Royal Highness Prince Turki bin Faisal, Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief and one-time ambassador to Washington, and retired IDF Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror, former national security advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

What makes someone become a violent Salafi rather than a non-violent Salafi depends on how they answer a basic question -- what makes someone Muslim?

As complicated as the Syria policy challenge may be, the president’s continued inaction in the face of atrocity and his statements about that deliberate posture remain deeply troubling.

Reflecting broad foreign policy themes dating to World War I, U.S. grand strategy in the Middle East since the Cold War has focused on establishing and managing a global security system to contain and deter outside threats. Given Eurasia's demographic and economic/technical strength, a dominant power or powers arising from

The prospect of warmer Iranian-Turkish ties is manageable so long as the United States maintains the intent and capability to promote regional security, and assuming Ankara continues to balance any such rapprochement with its ties to the West, Israel, and Arab states.

Of course it would be daunting to solve the conflicts the Islamic State feeds on, but that shouldn't be the mission in the first place.

While Western officials should remain true to their longstanding support for human rights and civil liberties in Iran, they should nevertheless be cautious about their ability to shape the country's internal dynamics, focusing instead on influencing its regional and foreign policies through a mixture of pressure and engagement.

Washington shouldn't rush to resolve issues such as banking restrictions and heavy-water stockpiles without prodding Tehran to take helpful steps of its own.

Until ISIS declared its so-called caliphate in 2014, this Islamic theological term barely raised flags for the West.

April 28, 2016 Yazidism is a separate religion. It is not “Umayyad Islam,” and neither is it an off-shoot of Sufism. Islam, notably in its ecstatic rituals, is evidently part of the Yazidi universe ― to which Yazidism has contributed, and from which it has adapted. Still, Yazidism is not

Half a decade after the 2011 Libyan uprising, the Libyan Eastern Army is fighting against Islamist militants in Benghazi while a unified interim government in Tripoli, guided by Fayez Sarraj and sponsored by the United Nations (UN), is attempting restore order according to the Libyan political agreement of last December

April 28, 2016 In the decades before 2011, Syria’s Baath Party flag, which controlled “society and state," and images of the president and “Leader” dominated all public platforms: the corridors of the state’s institutions and agencies, public squares, and even non-governmental institutions. This branding was most visible in educational institutions

Few people understand that Iranian banks do not live up to the standards U.S. agencies require of all foreign financial institutions, and that this shortcoming has nothing to do with the nuclear deal.

Aside from President Obama, none of the main players in Syria has an interest in rushing toward Raqqa, so they will likely focus on exploiting the various campaigns around Aleppo instead.

April 26, 2016 When most analysts evaluate the Arab Spring uprisings, they point to Tunisia as the single Arab state to have made a relatively peaceful transition to democracy. But this path has been neither linear nor smooth. Tunisia has experienced a slew of both achievements and setbacks since ousting

A detailed look at what happened in the first round of this year's parliamentary elections and how it might affect round two.

The divisive discourse on many American campuses threatens to doom Jewish and Muslim student leaders to the mistakes of the past, but bringing them together for mock negotiations is a proven way of helping them understand each other's arguments, grievances, and hopes.

The success of Riyadh's new economic policy will partly depend on changes in social and political attitudes, as well as greater transparency on legal and other issues.

April 22, 2016 In a statement issued in early March in by the headquarters of State Security in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City, Egyptian Ministry of Interior General Magdy Abdel Ghaffar announced that Hamas was responsible for the June 2015 assassination of Egyptian Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat. Abdel Ghaffar