Policy Analysis

Ankara may soon slap the Asad regime with mild sanctions, but most of its Syria policy will remain just rhetoric in the absence of international consensus regarding stronger action.

Progress on the economic and political fronts is helping to insulate the monarchy from the instability currently sweeping the region.

Whether U.S. forces in Iraq withdraw or not, Iran is expected to continue backing its proxies there in order to influence the political situation and retain an ability to strike Western assets.

The growing nexus between Yemen's antigovernment rebels and AQAP presents a thorny dilemma for the United States.

Washington needs to deepen its involvement in an increasingly unstable Yemen.

In the wake of the UN speeches and Netanyahu's acceptance of unconditional talks, Abbas now seems to be the odd man out, though renewed Israeli construction in east Jerusalem could alter that dynamic.

Washington should not allow its differences with Israel to define the bilateral relationship, much less highlight them in the vain hope of winning the esteem of Israel's foes.

It is important -- for both the future of the bilateral relationship and the economic and political success of Egypt -- that the legal process surrounding Mubarak's trial is transparent, credible, and not driven by mob justice.

Given Egypt's fluid post-revolutionary environment, Washington must be judicious as to when and how it attempts to exert influence on the domestic political scene.

On September 26, 2011, Mehdi Khalaji and Michael Eisenstadt addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute spotlighting their new Policy Focus Nuclear Fatwa: Religion and Politics in Iran's Proliferation Strategy . Mr. Khalaji, a senior fellow at the Institute, is the author of The New Order of the Clerical

Election laws that ensure a broadly representative parliament are vital to the legitimacy of Egypt's transition, but the newly announced system falls far short of this goal.

Recent arrests indicate that Hamas may be extending its operational reach outside its Gaza base.

A new royal decree giving women the right to vote can't hide the decay in the House of Saud.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders should look to 1947 for a lesson on the importance of political pragmatism rather than focusing on an all-or-nothing approach.

Although the Arab Spring is unlikely to fulfill the dearest hopes or darkest fears of U.S. policymakers, it is certain to change the Middle East forever, in ways we are only beginning to apprehend.

In Bahrain, the struggle between Sunnis and Shiites -- and their respective patrons, Saudi Arabia and Iran -- enters a new phase with this weekend's parliamentary by-elections.

The PA's demand for a UN declaration that names east Jerusalem as the capital of a new Palestinian state actually goes against the wishes of much of the city's Palestinian population.

Testimony before the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to be among the foremost countries in the world that systematically abuse human rights. The mechanisms of suppression in Iran have become so sophisticated that many of them are invisible. For instance

Testimony before the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. The alarming state of human rights and freedom in Iran and Syria is a matter not only of moral urgency, but of vital importance to U.S. national security. I drafted this testimony sitting in a crowded coffee shop

The United States must be more proactive in countering Iran's propaganda machine and breathing new life into the suppressed Green Movement.