Policy Analysis

In negotiations, the Iranian regime prefers to operate discreetly and secretly, allowing Tehran to shape the information spectrum and protract talks to buy time and wear down their negotiation counterparts. By shining light on the diplomatic process, U.S. policymakers can provide a counter-narrative that takes to task Iranian intransigence and provides accurate information for the Iranian public.

With U.S. security aid for Iraq under review, Baghdad is attempting to assess the potential impact of an extended freeze on its national security.

Russia is taking advantage of recent coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to embed itself in the Sahel. However, its indiscriminate counterterrorism tactics come with a cost for their forces and the regimes it protects.

While Iranian officials acknowledge the significance of cyber tools and AI for foreign policy, they are acutely aware of the country’s financial and scientific limitations.

In the last two months, China has continued its regional economic expansion, making concentrated progress with energy and development deals. Though less pervasive, Russia, too, has added to its economic portfolio in the region.

The SDF’s current role in Deir ez-Zor and the local grievances surrounding it requires an understanding of the origin of its entry into the region, along with the underlying tension between U.S., Iranian, and Syrian regime interests there.

Without clearly stated goals and a well-defined exit strategy, Israel risks its counteroffensive becoming a punitive effort that costs immense civilian deaths while failing to establish lasting stability and peace in its southern sector.

Iraq’s stagnant political and legal environments today indicate that the country still faces a deep strategic impasse as a result of international obligations and limitations.

In Gaza, most residents are strongly supportive of increased Arab involvement in the conflict and half are open to normalizing ties with Israel were Saudi Arabia to do so. A majority of West Bank residents, however, remain hesitant about such a proposal.

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) has been heading for unprecedented political and financial uncertainties as a result of the growing disputes between the two ruling parties and the central government’s moves to erode the KRI’s autonomous status.

China's recent mediation efforts between Riyadh and Tehran were motivated by a combination of strategic outlook and economic interest in the Middle East, signaling a gradual shift away from its traditional "free-riding" approach.

The ninth anniversary of the Yazidi Genocide in Sinjar, Iraq is drawing near, a tragedy in which thousands of Yazidis were murdered, Yazidi women and children were enslaved, and Yazidi villages and compounds were destroyed by ISIS in August 2014.

Despite discord between the Wagner Group and the Russian government, the entrenched economic and military engagement of Wagner forces in Syria is unlikely to change soon.

Despite numerous conferences and promises, Sudan's regional neighbors have done little to defuse the current conflict.

Worried by the implications of Erdoğan's reelection, the Kurds in northeastern Syria need active support from the United States now more than ever.

As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan will have to navigate urgent changes and new challenges in crafting Turkish policy towards Iraq.

The current conflict in Sudan has been exacerbated by a limited democratic process after the fall of Omar al-Bashir that failed to incorporate a diversity of Sudanese civilian voices.

With no end in sight, the Sudan conflict will put significant pressure on Egypt's economic, political, and security infrastructure.

New polling results from Lebanon emphasize ways in which the country’s public is frustrated domestically and at key Hezbollah ally Iran, while expressing mixed views of other powers.

Though Syria policies were at the center of the Turkish elections, the future for many Syrians remains unclear even after an Erdoğan victory.