Policy Analysis

According to young Shiite interviewees, two incentives could avert an uncertain journey to the Syrian battlefield: jobs and loans.

Cairo has sought to placate Saudi and American officials while reaching out to their respective adversaries in Damascus and Moscow, but this balancing act may soon topple if Riyadh and Washington withhold crucial funding.

But kicking out the Islamic State and keeping the peace are two very different things, so longer-term coalition support will be needed.

Putin's forceful strategy of internal military reforms, wide-ranging naval deployments, foreign interventions, and formidable A2AD bubbles has seemingly solidified Russia's presence in the region for the long term, which could complicate U.S. freedom of maneuver.

Along with Iran's heightened anti-American rhetoric and local naval deployments, the recent Houthi missile attacks against U.S. vessels raise fears that Tehran's clients may take the war into a new and more dangerous phase.

In this ninth essay in a series exploring Middle East actors pressing for political reform, Saudi activist Hala Aldosari discusses, first, the network of human rights activists encompassing Shiites, liberals, and women; and, second, social entrepreneurs who advocate for a cultural transformation to resist politically forced norms.

While the vast majority of Israeli settlers prefer a political solution, several radical subsets could threaten violence during the Amona evacuation or other attempted outpost removals.

Although the nascent Palestinian initiative may fizzle out on its own, U.S. inaction could draw the Obama administration into an unwanted diplomatic fracas or preempt its own potential initiative.

Israeli President Rivlin hosts Washington Institute Iinitiative that brings Israeli Jewish and Palestinian Muslim religious leaders together for the first time.

Absent effective support from the United States and Saudi Arabia, Lebanon's traditionally pro-Western but increasingly fractured Sunni bloc stands little chance of preventing further gains by the Hezbollah-Syria-Iran axis.

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.

As their sons and 'temporary husbands' are ripped from them to fight a proxy war in Syria, grieving mothers and brides are compensated with empty promises, poverty, and threats, heightening communal frustrations to the point of explosion.

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

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.