Policy Analysis

The answer does not lie in doubling down on pressure or ‘returning’ to diplomacy, but rather in wielding those policy tools in concert under the guidance of a realistic strategy.

Two security experts comb incident data from the past year to explain how the group is resurging and what factors are most likely to accelerate this troubling trend.

Is it too late for the UN to counter the Assad regime and its allies on their abuses or to salvage cross-border mechanisms for humanitarian aid? Former UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura joined a virtual Policy Forum to probe the prospects.

The drastic new declaration by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) abrogating the PA’s commitments to its political agreements with Israel, including security cooperation, has aroused great concern among both Israelis and Palestinians. The crux of the matter is this: will it be just one more of the many

Whether continued campaigns to hold Riyadh accountable for the crime succeed or not, the crown prince’s economic ‘Vision’ is increasingly likely to slip by another decade or more.

The Middle East, engulfed in numerous domestic and regional crises, has seen these challenges deepen with the appearance of the novel coronavirus and a sharp drop in oil prices. As the virus has placed additional pressures on the region’s governments, the severity of these countries’ positions—especially from an economic perspective

The Syrian leader’s dramatic war of words with his massively wealthy cousin may seem like a major fracture inside the regime, but the dynamics of past and present family disputes paint a different picture.

During the pandemic, Iran’s first reported cases on February 19 in the Qom province—the eventual epicentre for Iran— have demonstrated that Iran is not as isolated as it is often believed to be. Iran’s health minister reported that the novel virus was brought there by an Iranian merchant who had

The Trump administration has signaled that it won’t be bound by Netanyahu’s summer rush schedule on the issue, adding to the many foreign and domestic factors that could lead the prime minister to delay or curtail the move.

The Palestinians are withdrawing from peace deals, and Jordan could be next as Israel edges closer to appropriating land outright.

After his promising start, the new prime minister needs time and latitude to stamp his authority on the country’s security sector, even as militia rockets fall in Baghdad.

Given the Syrian army’s recent deployments in Deraa and Russia’s half-hearted attempts to halt them, the situation may soon lead to renewed shelling of civilian areas and myriad complications for Israel and Jordan.

A response to Hassan Ismaik’s “In Defense of Islamic Religious Reform” Three parties in the Arab and Islamic worlds are engaged in a heated debate over the need for a renewal of religious discourse. The first party considers religious reform a necessity for objective reasons, notably as an antidote to

Disease prevention efforts in Idlib illustrate the movement's political evolution and its differences from the Islamic State, but the pandemic may still hit the area hard given inconsistent implementation and years of regime destruction.

With clashes between Houthis and the Yemeni government forces escalating in Marib, the city’s inhabitants will lose no matter who claims victory.

The latest row over prisoner payments has highlighted the PA’s longstanding legitimacy deficit and its potential inability to control events on the ground if public unrest escalates this summer.

On April 7, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for a “Strategic Dialogue” between the United States and Iraq on the future of the bilateral relationship. The dialogue, meant to be a series of meetings between high-level U.S. and Iraqi officials, is intended to put all aspects of the

In this illuminating Policy Note -- complete with detailed maps and satellite imagery -- Matthew Levitt and Samantha Stern tell the story of the Lebanese NGO Green Without Borders and explain why the mandate for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon must be reworked.

Genuinely resolving the various entrenched disputes between GCC states is unlikely, so Washington should focus instead on managing relations with them bilaterally while still maximizing regional security.

As the Coronavirus pandemic is globalized, many states are facing similar challenges and choices in how to respond, with three major options: surrender and death, struggle and life, and prioritization of the economy in lieu of public health. These difficult choices are playing out in each state and the outcomes