Policy Analysis

Reaching a Gaza ceasefire and Israeli-Saudi normalization deal will require intense, well-coordinated diplomatic efforts in a condensed timeline, but the administration can do it with help from the “Arab Quint.”

A mechanism for diverting Iraqi government oil to militias through non-operational factories was recently exposed, creating a panic shutdown of asphalt plants run by Iran-backed terrorists.

In this chapter from the Jihadist Governance and Statecraft compilation, Devorah Margolin explores how Hamas has balanced the contradictions between the demands of governance and of continued terrorist operations.

In this chapter from the Jihadist Governance and Statecraft compilation, Aaron Y. Zelin explores how Afghanistan's one-time insurgents are making greater use of key instruments of state.

Access this powerful tool, which maps over forty-five years of Iranian clandestine operations around the globe.

A senior missile specialist from Yemen was killed alongside Iraqi members of Kataib Hezbollah, underlining the government's cooperation with domestic and foreign terrorist groups.

The 30,000-strong militia has ground forces massed along the frontier, preventing evacuated Israelis from returning home and increasing the risk of a war that both sides would rather postpone for now.

In this chapter from the Jihadist Governance and Statecraft compilation, Mattew Levitt examines how Hezbollah exercises authority from outside the halls of formal state power.

The fall (for now) of a senior Turkmen protege of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis is a reminder that fortunes, favor, and factions are always shifting within the Iran-backed "resistance" scene.

Far from a normal educational institution, al-Mustafa is the Iraqi branch of a U.S.-sanctioned Iranian entity that seeks to groom the next generation of Iraqi clerics, missionaries, pro-Iran political representatives, and pro-Iran militia members.

In this chapter from the Jihadist Governance and Statecraft compilation, Michael Knights explores the scope and nature of jihadist governance in Iraq.

The strikes are not yet numerous enough to form a definitive pattern, but they probably reflect deep militia divisions over whether to renew anti-coalition attacks in earnest amid the Gaza war.

An interactive map showing the extent to which Houthi forces, their Iranian military patrons, and other actors have been targeting vessels in regional waterways for years, including well before the Hamas-Israel war.

In recent years, members of tribes living on Kish land in Rabat have escalated their protests in response to decisions to re-allocate the land, demolish their homes, and evict them.

From rumored Houthi missile upgrades to Libyan arms deliveries by the ton, Moscow is doing all it can to empower hostile forces and undermine stability in the Middle East.

Four Washington Institute experts assess Israel’s calculus behind launching such high-profile attacks at this juncture, the likely effects on the Gaza hostage talks, Iran’s possible need for a face-saving military response, and more.

Regardless of how the group responds to Israel’s latest leadership strike, its desperation to stop the bleeding will create big diplomatic opportunities for the United States and its partners—if done right.

To mark the tenth anniversary of the genocide against the Yezidi people, three experts discuss the Islamic State’s minority atrocities, its systematic use of gendered violence, and the related challenges of repatriation.

To hold the group accountable for its victimization of women and children and ongoing fragmentation of communities in Iraq, Syria, and beyond, countries need to make better use of international law and repatriation strategies.

For more than four decades, the late terrorist and military commander Fuad Shukr was at the forefront of the group’s most destabilizing activities, from killing American, European, and Israeli soldiers to procuring advanced weapons from Iran.