Policy Analysis

On the shore of Nice’s Promenade des Anglais, where July’s Bastille Day attack killed 85 people, a photograph of a woman removing a layer of clothes with French police officers standing over her went viral. The image exposed the irony of a country that classifies itself as a “secular” republic

After the overthrow of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011, international actors and observers turned their attention to the Islamists in Egypt. All began monitoring how Islamism would be incorporated into the political equation. Led by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamists were dealing with the new struggle around

The massacre in an Orlando nightclub on June 12 by an individual claiming to belong to ISIS provoked immediate and firm condemnation from both Arab governments and the liberal Arab elite. However, much of the Arab media’s coverage avoided describing the place of the attack in detail, omitting that it

Normalization remains controversial in Arab circles but is no longer taboo, as more Arabs come to view Israel as a potential partner against enemies like Iran.

The League of Arab States has 22 members. The heads of state in all but one are Muslim. Up until two years ago, Lebanon was evidence that pluralism in the Arab region was more than just a pipe-dream. Since May 2014, however, with the mandate of the former president expiring

Kurdistan has been an island of relative stability and economic progress for nearly two decades, but continuing this success will require putting aside personal elitist rivalries and committing to political deal making and power sharing.

The current Iraqi political impasse offers an opportunity for moderate Iraqis to prevent the nation from slipping into a crisis that could be more dangerous than that brought about by the so-called ‘Islamic State’ — a crisis caused by the sectarianism of Iraq’s Islamist parties. It is time for Iraq’s

As the battle to retake Mosul from ISIS approaches, it is time to prioritize questions of post-ISIS governance and political settlement. Integrating Sunni Arab leaders and communities in the political process is essential for long-term stability and preventing a resurgence of extremist movements. While civil society engagement promotes reconciliation on

The disintegration of Iraq’s borders and the displacement of its people force us to ask if Iraq has come to an end. If the old Iraq has come to an end but is to remain united, then what is its new identity? If it is to be divided, then where

If the Europeans continue to act independently of local actors' wishes, they could further complicate matters in a region already beset by daunting challenges.

Mentally manipulating the Iraqi security forces by shaping the news and disseminating it online was one of the major pillars of ISIS’ strategy to occupy Mosul. The fall of Mosul on June 10 2014, followed by the fall of Nineveh and other Iraqi provinces, was especially notable for ISIS’s use

Proponents of such a view are driven by an utter lack of alternatives amid intractable regional conflict.

The eight suicide bombers were apparently dispatched to disrupt a new political paradigm in Lebanon: a Christian-Shiite alliance.

Cairo believes that relations with Israel are strategically and diplomatically beneficial, and the trend toward greater rapprochement will likely continue.

Lone wolf attacks are inevitable, but U.S. and Western reactions will determine whether the jihadist group succeeds in its long-term goal of turning its hatred into a culture war legitimized by the other side.

The Syrian government has intentionally targeted its own medical infrastructure, a violation of the Geneva Convention that has resulted in the near complete destruction of the country's modern preconflict health care system.

Few countries have received as much negative attention in Washington as Saudi Arabia over the last two years. Some of this is due to the politics of the Iranian nuclear deal and the Saudi response. It is also due to an attempt to make sense of the unprecedented breakdown of

Ms. Hiam Nawas, an analyst based in Washington, D.C., argues that, essentially, the source of the Arab world’s current crisis is its ‘culture’, promoting James Clapper’s claim that the United States “can't fix” the Middle East region. But a solution for the region’s fundamental problems needs a proper diagnosis, and

July 15, 2016 With Britain’s new Prime Minister Theresa Maym at the helm, Great Britain will soon leave the EU and return to its historical position as a bridge between Europe and America. But what will become of the EU after Brexit, an event that some have seen as equally

July 15, 2016 Some Western social and political scientists have explained the rise of ISIS in Iraq as a response to Islamic and Arab peoples’ rejection of globalization or Western culture. Although this analysis may be theoretically correct, like to most theoretical analyses, it does not fit with the reality