Policy Analysis

February 08, 2018 This piece by Omar Nidawi really hits the nail on the head by looking at a largely unassessed risk: that of moving too hastily against militias in Iraq. There is a lot of external analysis of taking a tougher line with Iran-backed militias in Iraq, but not

February 07, 2018 In the past few weeks, Iraqi politics were thrown into confusion as Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi briefly aligned his electoral coalition with the Fatih Coalition, the electoral alliance led by some of notorious Iran-backed Iraqi militia (PMF) leaders. The union lasted less than 24 hours, but for

The concept of “fake news” has gained traction in the United States because of politically motivated conspiracy theories. In the Middle East, politics has always involved a discussion of conspiracies. Some satellite news channels detail Qatar’s alleged network of secret agents and illicit funding aimed at overthrowing Arab governments, while

February 01, 2018 Arab and Western circles are anticipating the possibility of change in Iraq and some distancing from Iran. However, the basic fact is that Iraq is going through a very complex change that is transforming it into a province of Iran, fully tied to Iran politically, economically, and

January 24, 2018 The Turkish offensive into Afrin, the westernmost enclave controlled by Kurdish factions in northern Syria, opens another sad chapter in the long Syrian conflict. Immediate attention from Washington can contain the situation. It has been advised to address the underlying tensions plaguing Syrian relations and maintain its

As protests erupted in more than twenty Iranian cities in the waning days of 2017, European leaders were placed in a precarious diplomatic position. When put side-by-side with European responses to the Green Revolution in 2009, the new statements reflect the tamer priorities of European countries: protecting their diplomatic and

January 17, 2018 The Arab-Israeli peace process limps forward at best, but is more appropriately described as being paralyzed to the extent that it calls for immediate intensive care with the United States as its only broker. President Trump surprised all parties by announcing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel

January 17, 2018 The Iraqi narrative is simple and slightly apologetic: While the danger may have been over-felt, still, the “Islamic State” was at the gates of Baghdad, threatening to storm the capital city, and bluntly promising large-scale massacres of its Shia population. Thus sweeping through the majority of northeastern

January 03, 2018 The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) conducted the independence referendum on 25 September 2017. Of the 72.16 percent of eligible voters in the Kurdistan Region and the disputed territories that cast their votes, 92.73 percent favored separation from Iraq despite vehement opposition both internally and externally. The KRG

January 03, 2018 There is an argument that natural resource abundance is associated with slow growth, greater inequality, and poverty for a majority of a country’s population. Therefore, natural resource wealth has a two-way path: it can lead to economic growth and development, or it can drop the country into

At this current juncture there is not a viable path for either Syrian rebel forces nor for the opposition to win the war on their own. Saving Syria requires international cooperation by executing an effective plan to end the crisis. The best way forward is for the United States to

December 20, 2017 There have recently been a number of announcements claiming military defeat of the Islamic State in its strongholds of Mosul, Raqqa, and in the Syrian-Iraqi border town of al-Bukamal. And yet new questions arise on the lack of hard evidence of the group’s defeat, in the form

December 14, 2017 Before U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in a speech on December 6, the anticipated move was roundly criticized. Both by America’s ‘traditional enemies’ such as Iran and various Islamist groups, but also by U.S. allies in the Middle East and North

December 14, 2017 President Trump’s dramatic declaration to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and his plans to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem have thrown a spotlight on three goals the Palestinian leadership had so far failed to achieve, namely, to affirm the Palestinian national rights in

November 27, 2017 Tunisia is rightfully proud of what it has accomplished, for it was Tunisia that triggered the most important wave of far-reaching political transformation in the Arab world since the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Despite the movement’s trajectory in the region and its evolution into bloody struggles that have destroyed

Though political tensions exist between Bahrain’s Sunni elite and its Shia majority, polling suggests that public opinion on several key foreign policy issues is quite close between these two groups.

November 15, 2017 Following the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, the magazine Jeune Afrique devoted the cover of its August 27, 2017 paper edition to the involvement of Moroccans in acts of terrorism, with the title: "Terrorism: Born in Morocco." This provoked a great deal of criticism and anger in

November 9, 2017 The sudden resignation on November 4 of Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim prime minister, Saad Hariri, cast a harsh spotlight on his country’s internal polarization and external ties to Iran. Speaking from Saudi Arabia, where he remains in exile, Hariri blamed both of those Shia-dominated actors for Lebanon’s growing

November 8, 2017 Beginning when the Muslim Brotherhood came to power in Egypt in the summer of 2012, the Hamas-Egypt relationship deepened significantly. The relationship went beyond the General Intelligence Directorate’s coordination of security matters, to include coordination among political leaders Mohamed Morsi and Ismail Haniyeh. The strong relationship between

November 2, 2017 In mid-August, TV screens showed us the strange footage of Islamic State militants and their families travelling in buses protected by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), Hezbollah, and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). Yesterday enemies, today the LAF, Hezbollah, and SAA are keen to move the Islamic