Policy Analysis

As ethnic minorities and poverty-stricken provincial communities assume a greater role in nationwide unrest, the regime will likely try to pit them against each other.

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

The muted response to the protests may stem from Russia's reliance on Iranian assistance in Syria and its dearth of other regional partners.

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

The group's efforts to increase recruitment in certain areas of Lebanon have helped it continue the fight in Syria, but they could cause internal fissures down the road.

The more the regime believes that its foreign adventures threaten its internal foundations, the more likely it will be to temper its behavior.

The sign of a successful policy response will be its ability to remain relevant whether the demonstrations gather steam or subside.

The various regional actors who galvanized past protests have lost much of their legitimacy in recent years.

One hundred years ago, over a lunch, the internationalization of Jerusalem became irrelevant, and it remains so today.

Iraq's existing security institutions need bolstering, and the Popular Mobilization Forces can be incorporated into that process with the coalition's help.

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

Putin continues to use weapons deals as a tool for gaining political influence and changing power dynamics abroad, courting virtually every government in the region.

The country's continuing political and commercial challenges, including limited export possibilities, are hampering development of its Eastern Mediterranean natural gas.

December 21, 2017 On the first of December, President Donald Trump announced that the United States was recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and directed the U.S. embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In addition to fulfilling a campaign promise to his base, the move undertaken

Washington and its Gulf Arab partners should collectively hinder Tehran's efforts to close capability gaps, modernize its military, and develop its Shia foreign legion into a more effective expeditionary force.

The push by Iran to fill the void created by the defeat of the Islamic State looms large in Israel’s strategic landscape. If the current trajectory persists, these two determined regional actors could increasingly face each other in Syria and eventually slide into confrontation. Tehran seeks to create an enduring

Despite issuing threats through its proxies, Iran shares the international community's interest in Lebanon's near-term stability, but its motivations are hardly benevolent.

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

If taken as a whole, the document supports a largely traditional brand of U.S. foreign policy, but many elements of it could be used to justify a very different approach to the world.

Despite its less than definitive verdict, the trial of Ahmed Abu Khattala showed that federal prosecutors, the intelligence community, and the FBI have pursued the case with apolitical professionalism.