Policy Analysis

September 23, 2017 Seen from Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, U.S. and other foreign pressure to postpone the September 25 referendum on independence is, as Talleyrand once said, “worse than a sin – it is a mistake.” Popular enthusiasm for independence, and moral arguments about Kurdish

September 23, 2017 The question of independence is a heated discussion topic in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), claims that the defeat of the Islamic State will change the map of Iraq and the Middle East and offer Kurds an opportunity

September 22, 2017 Iran is increasingly nervous about Iraqi Kurdistan’s bid for a referendum on an independent Kurdish state. This nervousness arises because of two factors. First, declaring an independent Kurdish state would encourage Kurdish separatism within the Islamic Republic of Iran. Second, a new Kurdish state would undermine Iran’s

September 20, 2017 As President Trump meets with foreign leaders at the UN General Assembly this week, new poll data demonstrates that his agenda -- combating jihadi terrorists, countering Iran, and broadening Arab-Israeli dialogue -- has great popular appeal in at least one key Arab country: Jordan. A reliable survey

September 15, 2017 The most interesting election of 2017 may be its least transparent. In October, the United Nations will elect the next Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in a race as wild as any presidential or parliamentary contest. The next director will manage

September 14, 2017 Ever since Hamas violently ejected the Palestinian Authority’s forces from Gaza in 2007, report after report has detailed the degradation of infrastructure and the inevitability of crises. The United Nations has warned that Gaza will become unlivable by 2020 — a warning repeated almost annually since 2012

September 13, 2017 On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar over allegations that Doha is supporting terrorism and that it embraces Iran and its regional agenda. The Saudi-led quartet (Quartet) also imposed an economic embargo of Qatar — which includes

September 13, 2017 The first time I was exposed to the work of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Egypt was in the early 1990s. I was a child in Imbaba, one of the most populous, radicalized, and poorest areas in Cairo. The area did not have

September 5, 2017 Mideast pundits often speak in terms of “age-old” ethnic and religious conflicts, or of “deeply entrenched” attitudes or prejudices. A closer look at the evidence, however, reveals that Arab public opinion can sometimes change dramatically, both for better and for worse, in the space of just a

July 27, 2017 In his July 13 Fikra Forum article, “The United States and Saudi Arabia Have More In Common Than Mere Common Interests,” Fahad Nazer makes the jarring claim that U.S.-Saudi relations are now based not only on well-known security and economic interests, but also on shared “core values”

May 8, 2017 I had not been to Qamishli for twenty years. As a Ph.D. student at the French Institute for the Near East, I went with two friends in the late 1990s to explore northeast Syria. This journey led us to Raqqa, Deir al-Zour, Hasaka, and Qamishli. Since 1997

May 5, 2017 A few decades ago, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq were culturally rich and diverse societies, with distinct national identities that acknowledged their pluralism. For much of the twentieth century the Egyptian flag was green with a white crescent encircling three white stars. A relic of Ottoman times, the

04/26/17 Last month, the governor of Kirkuk, Najmaldin Karim, raised the Kurdistan flag in the province, causing uproar inside Iraq and across the region. The Iraqi parliament denounced the unilateral decision, dismissing it as unconstitutional. The Kirkuk province itself was quick to condemn the action as well and asked for

April 17, 2017 In the year 622, the Prophet Muhammad migrated to the city of Medina, where he established his state and wrote his famous document regarding the protection of civil society and respect for freedom. Faith, morality, and equality were essential values of this small state. Today, the ruling

In 2014, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned that Israel risked becoming an apartheid state if a two-state solution could not be reached. In March 2017, a UN report titled "Israeli Practices toward the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid," published by the Economic and Social Commission for

March 27, 2017 Last month the Marrakesh Security Forum, a semiofficial annual conference of experts and policymakers hosted by Morocco's leading foreign policy think tank, marked the diplomatic reunion of Morocco and the African Union with intense discussion of common continental interests in confronting violent jihadi threats. And last week

The escalation of conflicts, whether in nature or number, has captured the attention of major international powers, especially the United States. In the aftermath of 9/11, the ‘War on Terror’ became the most important theme of international security cooperation in the United States and the defining feature of its national

March 27, 2017 In one of his inspiring and insightful speeches, the late king Hassan II described Morocco as a big tree with its roots deeply buried in Africa, its trunk in the Arab-Muslim world, and its branches in Europe. The country is, therefore, the gate of Europe unto Africa

March 21, 2017 Having read the article in Foreign Affairs about Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and in the wake of publicity following his meeting with President Trump this week, I would like to offer a candid view that speaks for many Saudis of my generation. Like King Talut of the

March 20, 2017 On December 11, an Islamic State bomb targeting St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo’s Abbassia district killed 25 Egyptian Christians. According to the official investigation, the suicide bomber was an Egyptian citizen named Abu Abdullah al-Masri, or Mahmud Shafiq. Following that attack, a stolen truck drove through a