Policy Analysis

Kuwaiti citizens are fed-up with the highly unproductive and unrepresentative 2013-parliament of both opposition and tribal groups. Thus the turnout for the upcoming elections is expected to be high with both political groups vying to make a comeback.

The increase in the power of Hezbollah and Iran is a danger to Lebanese democracy. Even so, the selection of a new president will hopefully set the stage for parliamentary elections to finally occur after three years of delay.

Why is Turkey suddenly passionate about helping fight Da’esh?

After so much hope, what happened?

If a case can be made for a country too big to fail in the Middle East, it would be Turkey.

If the American-Russian diplomatic process permanently fails, Syria could be on the brink of becoming the epicenter of international jihadism.

As Shiite militias in Iraq attempt to become potent political actors, they may follow Hezbollah's Lebanese model: using military leverage over the government to wrestle power on Iran's behalf.

In addition to the schadenfreude of many loyal to the Islamist movement after the attack, there were other voices which were impossible to ignore: those of a group mourning for the soldiers while simultaneously criticizing the army’s leadership.

The devastation of Aleppo, Idlib, and Tikrit may motivate the Sunni leaders in Mosul and Raqqa to think and act politically rather than violently.

What is striking today are the historical similarities between the first Ottoman venture in Northern Iraq and the current deployment of Turkish troops in Bashiqa and other areas of Iraqi Kurdistan.

While at first sight appealing, the notion of moderate Islam constitutes an undue concession to the argument that individuals and societies who hold Islam as part of their faith defined primarily by their religious affiliation.

With some Arabs leading the call, various dissidents like the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) core of the NCRI are accelerating their calls for regime change in Iran.

What binds Saudi Arabia with Japan, of course, and increasingly separates it from the U.S., is oil. Saudi Arabia is by far the world’s largest exporter of it; Japan is one of the largest importers.

In order to start a “holy war” against the West, al Qaeda tried to lure Western countries into the Middle Eastern military quagmire. ISIS’ goal, however, is to create a social conflict in the West in order to weaken it, since a weakened enemy is an easier target in the long run.

It seems that more than five years of the Syrian crisis are not enough for a a Syrian to say, “I have a dream!”

September 28, 2016 In a bold state-like move, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party ( PYD) conducted censuses in the Rojava canton of Jazira. The government of the autonomous region seems to realize that being the “good guys” on the battlefield is not enough. To be legitimate rulers, they need to

The author would like to thank Dr. Jacob Olidort for his assistance and support on this piece. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has a much more effective online media program than its jihadi neighbors and predecessors: it recruits and radicalizes supporters while provoking and terrorizing enemies. Yet

An interview with peace activist Professor Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi As a non-violent form of resistance to the Israeli occupation, the anti-normalization movement gained ground in the aftermath of the Al-Aqsa Intifada of 2000. Extremist groups such as Hamas and the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) oppose

The sectarian, ethnic "holy wars" manifesting in Syria and Iraq are morphing into permanent security and financial liabilities for the international community. Have the people of Iraq and Syria decided that they are better off when they are separate but equal? In 2003, Iraq was enshrined with a constitution that

People around world are prone to oversimplify the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Some say, for example, that they are no more than a transitory or incidental phenomenon. Others posit that they are merely a gang of mercenaries who can be eliminated through military effort alone. Yet, regardless of