Carnegie Middle East Center
- Follow Carnegie
- Search
- Global Resources
Global Centers
Languages
Without an understanding of what was lost and how it happened—and why the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran played such a crucial role in this unraveling—a better future for the Middle East will remain elusive, and the world’s understanding of the region will remain incomplete.
A glimpse into the tension between progressive and traditional interpretations of Islam in Egypt.
While appearing to do nothing, policymakers are in fact tacitly responding to the crisis.
Turkey’s military intervention in Libya, involving the deployment of Syrian fighters, is the latest chess move in a long-running civil war that followed the 2011 revolution, the NATO-led intervention, and the overthrow of the dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
We believe Lebanon’s public debt is unsustainable. We strongly recommend that the Lebanese government commences with a comprehensive restructuring effort to bring down the debt burden to a level the country can afford.
As the tenth anniversary of the first uprising of the Arab Spring approaches, massive and sustained popular uprisings in Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, and Lebanon have shown that the Arab world is far from finished with the question of democracy.
The British, French, and German foreign ministers have formally accused Iran of breaking the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a step that could lead to sanctions. Are the Europeans preparing to pull the plug?
Qaboos seemed an anachronism in his final years on the throne, a temperate leader in an intemperate Middle East. His passing has huge consequences for the fate of his temperate model, with all its imperfections.
Under Soleimani’s command, Iran became the only country in the region capable of harnessing both Shiite extremism and, at times, Sunni radicalism too.
Presidents make lonely, difficult decisions about the use of force to protect U.S. interests—usually with the solace of knowing at least that diplomacy had failed. The tragedy of the current plight is that diplomacy was succeeding before it was abandoned.
As the news of the killing of Qassem Suleimani sunk in, the differences between how it was covered in the West and the reaction in the wider Arab world became clear.
Altering American foreign policy while maintaining national security imperatives is never a matter of just pulling the plug.
Inside the Islamic Republic, the impact of Soleimani’s death will take years to appreciate. But its immediate effect was to throw the regime a lifeline.
For India, the equation is pretty simple: better diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran would let New Delhi deal more smoothly with both countries. A decline in the relationship adversely affects Indian interests.
The escalating conflict between the United States and Iran seems to be cooling off. But any relief may be short-lived.
Both President Donald Trump and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have something in common: they both want to hang on to power and a major war between Iran and the United States is not good politics for either one.
A major war with Iran is by no means inevitable. But the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani is a roll of the dice that just might take us there.
Saudi Arabia’s reaction to the operation that obliterated Iran’s Major General Qassem Solaimani has been reserved. Riyadh is right: it is not all good news for the kingdom.
After decades of dictatorship, Sudan’s unlikely transition to democracy may finally be happening. How did the battle-scarred country reach this point, and what might derail the delicate transition?
An independent group of development specialists, economists and finance experts met in Beirut late-December to discuss the ongoing economic crisis and the path forward. This note summarizes the deliberations and puts forth a ten-point action plan meant to arrest the crisis and place the country on a path of sustained recovery.