Policy Analysis

If the United States and the major donor nations endorsed a transition agreement, the conflict would become a dispute between two states, leaving the Palestinian leadership with little choice but to forge ahead toward a final-status solution.

As narratives about the root causes of the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations take shape, U.S. leaders have a major decision to make about whether to disengage from diplomacy or deepen involvement in less high-profile ways.

Security crackdowns will not be enough to eradicate jihadist networks in Tunisia and Libya, which have the patience and ideological conviction to weather drastic reorganization.

A CIA veteran and an Israeli security expert discuss the growing presence of al-Qaeda affiliates in Sinai and Syria.

Israeli and Palestinian perspectives on recently collapsed peace talks offer hope for eventual progress, though publics and leaders on both sides will need to overcome barriers of mistrust and misunderstanding.

Before Hezbollah's massive intervention in 2013, Bashar al-Assad's forces were nearing exhaustion, Syrian Opposition Coalition chief of staff Monzer Akbik said during a panel discussion at The Washington Institute's 2014 Weinberg Founders Conference on May 8. Assad was facing a catastrophic human-resources and materiel crisis, Akbik said, which the dictator

Israel's former prime minister and defense minster shared his outlook on the Middle East, American global leadership, and his country's rapidly evolving strategic position.

A panel of senior U.S. and foreign policy practitioners shared insights into the status and course of American policy in the Middle East.

Martin Indyk, the U.S. special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, addressed the 2014 Weinberg Founders Conference.

A revolution in domestic production may bring the United States closer to energy independence, but American energy security will continue to depend on global markets and the stability of Middle East exports.

Israel and Jordan have together mounted a "well coordinated" effort to prevent the most extreme elements among the Syrian rebellion from dominating the southern front along both the Israeli and Jordanian borders, Middle East analyst Ehud Yaari told attendees at The Washington Institute's 2014 Weinberg Founders Conference. Yaari, the Institute's

A violent Libyan jihadist group is increasingly using aid efforts and religious education to cultivate a constituency abroad, not just at home.

As Turkey's presidential election approaches, a closer look at the results of the March local elections sheds light on how the country's near-term political future may unfold.

Martin Indyk, U.S. special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, diagnosed the collapse of recent peace talks in a frank keynote address to the Institute's 2014 Weinberg Founders Conference. Watch his remarks and download a transcript. Also view other sessions, with speakers including Sen. Tim Kaine, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, and former French ambassador to Washington Jean-David Levitte.

Piping Israeli gas to liquefaction plants in Egypt is the most commercially logical option but remains politically risky.

Washington should look for small changes in Kuwait and Qatar's political and security calculus that could provide opportunities to support counter-terrorist financing measures there.

America's Asian allies questioned the president about Syria not because it is a vitally important issue to them, but because of what it says about Washington's willingness to act.

The longer the war in Syria continues, the greater the threat these fighters will likely pose.

A Syrian Kurdish group's hostile reaction to the digging of a trench along the Iraqi border is doing more to undermine Kurdish unity than the trench itself.

A senior State Department advisor and two Washington Institute scholars discuss what lessons can -- and cannot -- be drawn from the Islamist political experience in Egypt, Pakistan, Morocco, and other countries.