Carnegie Middle East Center
Policymakers need to learn from their military subordinates: They should keep their heads cool and think of the consequences of their actions, both intended and unintended.
While other Palestinian institutions are in crisis, Hamas has maintained its integrity and survived political turmoil. But to capitalize on this, it will need to revise its strategy.
The Sahel is a source of high instability for the Maghreb and by extension for Europe.
Following the end of the fighting in Syria, displaced refugees will require four things before they return home.
Continued U.S. engagement in Syria is necessary to prevent a resurgence of extremism.
As Pakistan balances cooperation with Iran and its relationship with Saudi Arabia, Indo-Saudi relations are on the rise and Iran continues to play India and Pakistan against each other for its own gain.
European donors should persist with a localist approach in Syria, but efforts should generate an inclusive notion of democratic citizenship rather than just support the liberal-moderate opposition.
The rise in Salafi militancy in Lebanon is not only due to the spillover of the Syrian war, but also to the Sunni elite’s failure at tackling the grievances of their co-religionists.
The upcoming Egyptian presidential election is neither free nor democratic. The United States must not treat this election as a legitimate expression of the Egyptian people’s will.
The United States cannot ignore nor extricate itself from Syria without durably harming its regional interests and the post-WWII liberal order it helped create. Only through discipline, commitment, and leadership can Washington help bring peace to Syria.
Nearly a decade after the Arab uprisings, tempers in the outlying regions of the Maghreb are on the boil. Scarred by a history of states’ neglect, with poverty rates often more than triple that of urban areas, these frontiers of discontent are being transformed into incubators of instability.
The U.S.-Saudi relationship is based on mutual expectations that are unlikely to be met. It will endure but it is likely to remain far more fraught and complex and, in the years ahead, increasingly less beneficial for the United States.
A massive deterioration of the rule of law in Turkey is making a political alliance with the EU impossible, but cooperation must continue. Supporting the country’s resilient democrats is a major political task for Brussels.
State control of Algeria’s religious sphere is robust, yet it has recently been challenged by the upsurge in violent ideologies in the Maghreb region and beyond.
A discussion on lessons learned from the Arab Peace Initiative, the two-state solution, and the future direction of Jordan.
The sorry position of the United States in the Middle East today ought to be sending President Trump a powerful message. The region bristles with American air and naval bases and major deployments, but despite all this military strength, the “go to” power in the region today is Russia.
No longer confined to homeland states, Shia politics is being advocated, reinforced, and supported by diasporic transnational networks.
U.S. military assistance in the Middle East (and more broadly) is in need of serious reform.
Carnegie Moscow Center’s Director Dmitri Trenin and Rethinking Russia discussed his new book “What Is Russia Up To in the Middle East?”, Moscow’s role and place in the region, the future of Syria and the Islamic State as well as Russia’s Syria collaboration with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the U.S.
Iran boasts that its foreign policy is driven by fighting injustice rather than furthering the state’s economic interests. This may restrain possibilities for reform.