Policy Analysis

In early 2017, Iraqi security forces are likely to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State, which has held the city since June 2014. As the event draws near, big-picture questions regarding how Arabs, Kurds, and microminorities can work together have justifiably drawn much scholarly attention, as have immediate challenges such

After three antishipping attacks in two weeks by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, Washington should take firm steps to prevent this from becoming the new normal off Yemen's coast.

Russia's long-term economic and military problems are formidable, but Western policymakers should not expect such issues to deter Putin from continuing to undermine the West.

This Research Note takes a hard look at the Iranian regime's expanding totalitarian tendencies and the implications for the dwindling autonomy of Iran's clerics.

Two longtime veterans of American military operations in Iraq share their assessments of the campaign against the Islamic State as Iraqi forces prepare to liberate the city of Mosul.

Tehran continues to boast about military capabilities that bolster deterrence, but ambiguities in its definition of national interests raise concerns about how it will wield its new offensive weapons and increasingly assertive policies.

"Syria is going to hit the next president very hard," warns Ambassador Dennis Ross. A veteran of five administrations, under presidents of both parties, Ross shares his insights into the decisions that will face the next commander in chief as well as the planning that must take place before Inauguration

Whether credible or not, rumors of risky U.S. military strikes overshadow the wide range of other tools Washington has for raising the costs of Russia's behavior and creating leverage for more successful negotiations down the road.

The second parliamentary election since the protests of 2011 will be a referendum on the kingdom's leading Islamist party and the broader reform process.

Yemeni rebels successfully attacked a UAE military vessel with what appeared to be an Iranian cruise missile, raising the need for a stronger U.S. role in the strategic waterway.

The last remaining Islamic State stronghold in eastern Syria is poised to fall, and given the potentially major strategic implications for the Kurds, Turkey, the rebels, and other actors, one of them may act quickly to determine its fate.

With some Arabs leading the call, various dissidents like the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) core of the NCRI are accelerating their calls for regime change in Iran.

What binds Saudi Arabia with Japan, of course, and increasingly separates it from the U.S., is oil. Saudi Arabia is by far the world’s largest exporter of it; Japan is one of the largest importers.

Coalition and Iraqi planners seem to have settled on a phased approach aimed at encircling the city, hitting Islamic State targets with precision weapons, and minimizing civilian casualties, but the aftermath could prove more difficult than the battle itself.

The IRGC has sought to prove the resilience and technological prowess of its new UAVs by displaying them next to recovered models from other countries, but it may also be trying to mask key shortcomings.

Politics has become a life-or-death struggle for several of America's important partners in the Middle East, says Eric Trager, and their leaders increasingly perceive even mild U.S. encouragement on human rights issues as support for domestic enemies. The next president will face a decision about how to prioritize America's strategic

However hard it seems for Iran to fight against the United States’ “soft war,” nothing appears easier and less costly than mobilizing Iranians worldwide against Saudi Arabia or poisoning their consciencewith anti-Arab sentiments.

It seems that more than five years of the Syrian crisis are not enough for a a Syrian to say, “I have a dream!”

The House of Saud is probably not headed for a serious crash, but its growing domestic tensions make a fender-bender increasingly likely.

Internal political bickering and public discontent over economic problems could complicate the upcoming Mosul campaign and the KRG's long-term unity.