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Context: Understanding the Gaza Ceasefire

Protesters wave Palestinian flags in Gaza City - source: Reuters

The Ceasefire in Gaza: Views on Security, Palestinian Governance, and Regional Dynamics

A compilation of Washington Institute insights on the profoundly complex tasks ahead—from preventing a Hamas resurgence to promoting Palestinian political reform—and the states and mechanisms likely to carry them out.

Oct 14, 2025

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Neomi Neumann
Ghaith al-Omari
Ehud Yaari
Dana Stroul
Soner Cagaptay
James Jeffrey

“Deradicalization” in Gaza: The Problem, the Solution, and the Measures of Success

To ensure the U.S. peace plan meets the long-term goal of a Gaza that is not ruled by Hamas and does not pose a threat to its neighbors, authorities need to combine realistic and measurable achievements with efforts toward disarmament, civilian reconstruction, and changing the public agenda.

Oct 17, 2025

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Neomi Neumann
Devorah Margolin

U.S. President Trump walks with Israeli President Herzog and Prime Minister Netanyahu after arriving in Israel - source: The White House

The Real Trump Factor in the Gaza Deal

The price of today’s breakthrough may be tomorrow’s turbulence, as the president and his advisors press their thumbs on the scales of Israel’s electoral and legal processes.

Oct 17, 2025

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Dana Stroul

A masked Hamas fighter brandishes a rifle in Gaza - source: Reuters

Hamas Is Not Done Fighting

More than three decades ago, amid the prospect of Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory, international actors similarly sought to disarm the group and exclude it from governance.

Oct 14, 2025

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Matthew Levitt

A Palestinian man in Gaza releases pigeons

How to End the War in Gaza for Good

The momentum created by phase one of the peace plan will eventually fade, so the Trump administration must work quickly with its partners to establish clarity on complex issues like disarming Hamas and securing Gaza, and on identifying the actors to implement them.

Oct 10, 2025

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Dennis Ross

Institute Expertise on Arab-Israeli Relations

Dennis Ross

A diplomat with decades of experience in U.S. Middle East policy in the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Obama administrations, Ambassador Dennis Ross is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Dana Stroul

A policy practitioner with extensive experience within the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government, Dana Stroul is Director of Research and Kassen Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute.

Ghaith al-Omari

The former director of the American Task Force on Palestine, Ghaith al-Omari served as advisor to the negotiating team during the 1999–2001 permanent-status talks in addition to holding various other positions within the Palestinian Authority.

David Makovsky

A veteran journalist, author, academic, and diplomat, David Makovsky is the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations.

Recent Institute Analysis

An Algeria-Morocco “Peace Deal”? Managing U.S. Diplomacy and Expectations

The Trump administration has been alluding to a potential breakthrough between the two regional rivals, but striking near-term deals on issues like Western Sahara and MINURSO would only be the first step in a necessarily long-term U.S. diplomatic effort.

Oct 23, 2025

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Sabina Henneberg
Souhire Medini

On Hezbollah’s Disarmament, Israel Will Not Compromise

There will be no peace, sovereignty, or reconstruction for postwar Lebanon until more of the group’s weapons are confiscated, but Beirut appears increasingly unwilling to tackle that task outside the southern frontier zone.

Oct 24, 2025

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David Schenker

What a Trump Counterterrorism Strategy Should Say

Some of the administration’s counterterrorism actions have diverged from the strategy outlined during the president’s first term and from longstanding U.S. policy, raising important questions that should be addressed in the near future by a second-term CT document.

Oct 22, 2025

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Michael Jacobson

A man holds his child and a flag of the new Syrian regime in Damascus after the fall of the Assad government in 2024 - source: Reuters

Forging Syrian National Unity Is Key to Regional Peace

Damascus has already taken steps toward this end, but intensive international economic assistance and political mediation will still be vital—the latter drawing on relevant elements from Iraq’s governing model.

Oct 21, 2025

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James Jeffrey

Global Gangsters: Hezbollah’s Latin American Drug Trafficking Operations

The director of the Institute’s counterterrorism program testifies on how the group’s postwar funding crunch will likely spur it to double down on raising money via its extensive criminal networks in the West.

Oct 21, 2025

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Matthew Levitt

Study: Leveraging Sanctions to Change Tehran's Strategic Calculus

Four Keys for Iran Snapback Implementation

Inevitable attempts by Tehran to rebuild its nuclear and missile programs will require a U.S.-led campaign to track the regime’s proliferation activities and block transfers of related materials.

Oct 8, 2025

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Richard Nephew

In-Depth Report: The Abraham Accords at Five Years

Netanyahu, Trump, and Foreign Ministers Zayani (Bahrain) and Abdullah bin Zayed (UAE) at the Abraham Accords ceremony, Sep 15, 2020.

Maps & Graphics

Resilience and Roadblocks:

The Abraham Accords at Five Years

The architecture behind Arab-Israel normalization has survived the war years, but expansion to other countries will require a credible embrace of diplomacy, along with regional collaboration to shape Gaza’s future.

Sep 11, 2025

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David Makovsky

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Recent Webcasts: Expert Policy Conversations

Palestinians celebrate news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October 2025 - source: Reuters

Video

The Gaza "First Phase" Agreement: Assessments and Implications

Five experts and former high-level officials discuss the gamut of opportunities and risks created by the Trump administration’s diplomatic achievement.

Oct 10, 2025

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Michael Herzog
David Makovsky
Nickolay Mladenov
Neomi Neumann
Ghaith al-Omari

A memorial in Tel Aviv to the victims of the OCtober 7 Hamas terror attacks - source: Reuters

Video

October 7, Two Years On: Repercussions for Israel, the Middle East, and U.S. Policy

An Emirati official and an Israeli expert join two former U.S. officials to discuss the ongoing aftershocks of the Hamas attack, including the revised prospects for peace amid the Trump administration's new diplomatic push.

Oct 7, 2025

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Yossi Klein Halevi
Ali al-Nuaimi
Dana Stroul
Dennis Ross

Video

Recognizing “Palestine”: Rationale, Expectations, Implications

An Israeli legal expert, a Palestinian political activist, and a French journalist explore the many shortcomings of recognition, including its failure to address Israeli fears and promote reform in the PA.

Sep 19, 2025

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Tal Becker
Samer Sinijlawi
Isabelle Lasserre

Interactive Map: ISIS Global Activity

Under the leadership of jihadism scholar Aaron Zelin, a team of researchers at The Washington Institute has built the Islamic State Select Worldwide Activity Map, an interactive tool that provides a more accessible way to search, track, and understand the organization’s global reach. It represents the most comprehensive public archive of the group’s attack data, media output, government designations, and legal cases — information that is becoming invaluable as IS affiliates disperse into a wider range of jurisdictions and the U.S. government continues shifting resources away from the global counterterrorism fight.

Access the interactive map.

Iranian External Operations Map and Timeline

Access this powerful interactive tool, which maps over forty-five years of Iranian clandestine operations around the globe.

Recently in Fikra Forum

Fikra Forum

Coal, Oil, Gas, and Nuclear: Risks in Turkey’s Growing Energy Demands

Without further diversification of suppliers, expanded renewable capacity, strategic investments in LNG, and nuclear partnerships beyond Russia, Turkey risks exchanging one form of energy dependency for another.

Oct 22, 2025

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Mustafa Enes Esen

Fikra Forum

The IMF’s Lebanon Framework: Balancing State Debt with Depositor Rights

So far, the proposals presented to Lebanon’s central bank risk prolonging rather than solving the country’s financial and economic woes.

Oct 1, 2025

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Samara Azzi

Photo of an oil facility in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Facing Fiscal Pressures: Iraq’s Struggle for Reform Ahead of the 2025 Election

Baghdad’s oil dependency is a risk for long-term stability, but making the necessary changes will mean confronting political elites who

Sep 18, 2025

Overhead photo of a Libyan oil pipeline.

Freeing Libya’s Locked-Up Oil Reserves

Restoring the oil-for-fuel program would avert a near-term crisis and potentially provide a platform for more ambitious reform—though it is

Sep 14, 2025

Interactive Tool: Tracking Maritime Attacks in Middle East Waters Since 2019

This interactive map documents the extent to which Houthi forces, their Iranian military patrons, and other actors have been targeting vessels in regional waterways for years, including well before the Hamas-Israel war.

View the Map