Policy Analysis

The lifting of international sanctions and the region's vastly changing geopolitical environment have opened a window of opportunity for Tehran to buy potent arms from Russia and modernize its arsenal.

Western policy must be precise and consistent in its use of terms, objectives, and methods in order to account for differing local perceptions.

The Kurdish issue in Turkey stands on the precipice of becoming an international problem, involving all sorts of nefarious actors from the Syrian civil war.

Explore the roles of Salafism, jihadism, nationalism, and other movements as drivers of conflict and alliance post-Arab Spring.

For such zones to succeed, they must be backed with militarily enforced no-fly zones and a persuasive response to Moscow's inevitable small-scale violations and disinformation campaign.

Saudi Arabia today is trying to unite the Arab world, while countering Iran in Yemen, Syria, and elsewhere, and also coping with an oil price that remains stubbornly weak.

Once again, Moscow has expressed agreement with the United States on the broad principles for easing the Syrian conflict and then acted without regard to those principles.

Riyadh's offer to deploy ground troops in Syria and reestablish air operations comes while its forces are still heavily committed in Yemen and a huge military exercise begins in the kingdom's north.

The victors, winnowed from an especially large field, will serve until 2024 and therefore may play a role in choosing a new Supreme Leader.

Establishment of humanitarian corridors, safe havens, safe zones, or buffer or no-fly zones could turn the tide of Syria's humanitarian crisis, but it could also pose numerous complications and create second- and third-order effects for the region.

Understand the policy implications of humanitarian safe havens, safe zones, buffers, or no-fly zones in Syria with these assessments of the who, what, where, why, and how of the various options.

The Assad regime's Russian-aided military campaign and the onset of spring augur another mass refugee flow into the EU, and the only surefire way to stop it is by addressing the root of the crisis inside Syria.

If Moscow can get away with boldly flouting U.S. interests in a key American security zone such as the Middle East, where might it interfere next, and at what cost to the international security system?

Ostensibly convened to develop a political solution to the five-year old Syrian crisis, the Geneva III talks were based on deceit. While diplomatic teams from major world capitals wrangled over the minutiae of the negotiation process, Moscow was preparing a major air and special forces offensive against opposition-held territory in

Successive White House administrations have tried to weaken the Iranian mullahs’ grip on the country through war, sanctions, and diplomatic isolation. Each policy has failed eminently, and a considerable list of U.S. officials expects more of the same from President Obama’s new strategy of ‘veiled’ diplomacy, which attempts to foster

Kathy Gilsinan interviewed Andrew J. Tabler on what an Assad victory would mean for the war and the West. The full text of the article, including graphics, is available on the Atlantic website. Kathy Gilsinan: I wanted to start with what the significance of Aleppo has been to the Syrian

The revolution of January 25, 2011 remains the greatest act of social reassessment in Egypt’s history. All involved parties agreed on the importance of change for Egypt’s future, and that this future required the introduction of increasingly modern means and values. Its actors were dedicated to bringing Egyptian citizens a

Even with the low price of oil and natural gas, there are ample business and policy reasons for exploiting Israel's reserves quickly, so Netanyahu is pushing ahead despite ongoing political constraints.

By allowing events 6,000 miles away to outpace its decisionmaking, the Obama administration put itself in a lose-lose situation, which is why Egyptian and regional players regard U.S. policy during the uprising as a failure.

While many believe that Riyadh's Yemen campaign and oil policy are sowing the seeds of domestic instability, the kingdom's activist approach is likely to endure for the foreseeable future given Washington's recent track record.