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Middle East and North Africa

Yemen’s Intractable Civil War

The civil war in Yemen began in 2014 with the Houthi rebels taking over the country’s north, including the capital, the international airport and...

Will the Saudi-Iran Normalization Last?

Last week, two of the Middle East’s biggest rivals, Saudi Arabia and Iran, emerged from a conference in Beijing and announced that they had...

How Arabs Aggravated Israeli Existential Fears

The Arab world’s hostility to the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine exacerbated the existential fears of many Israelis, developed over centuries of...

The Evolution of Regime Change in Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran turned 44 years old about a month ago despite being in the throes of evolutionary regime change for over a...

Israel and Iran’s Calibrated Conflict

For the past quarter century, Israel has endlessly reiterated its resolve to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, threatening to take military action should...

Syria’s Earthquake Shakes Up Regional Stalemate

The Feb. 6 earthquake in Turkey and Syria is a formidable and complex humanitarian crisis. The death of more than 47,000 people and destruction...

Saudi Arabia’s Untenable Modernization Plan

In 2016, when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman launched a vision for Saudi development, he seemed sure that his country had everything it...

The Ukraine War, One Year In

It’s been a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, and what many believed would be a short-lived conflict rages on. That’s not to say it’s...

Arab-Iranian Relations Burdened by History

There has long been a desire within certain segments of the Arab masses to establish a unity with Persians based on religious fraternity, which...

The Bigger Picture Around Juniper Oak

In late January, U.S. and Israeli forces staged a military exercise called Juniper Oak, their largest, most complex exercise to date. Planned in just...

Turkey at a Crossroads

Observers of Turkish politics have expected for months that the upcoming elections set for May 14 will be the most hotly contested vote since...

The Political Fallout From the Turkey Earthquake

On the morning of Feb. 6, two powerful earthquakes struck southern Turkey and northern Syria. The aftershocks continued for days thereafter. So far, the...

West Bank Violence Stalls Arab-Israeli Normalization

Last month, three senior U.S. officials visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories to try to avert a third Palestinian intifada. National Security Adviser Jake...

Why Russia and Iran Need India’s Help

Last week, Iran’s central bank deputy governor said Iran and Russia had connected their bank messaging systems, a move that should bolster cooperation and...

Rethinking Islamophobia

In recent years, there have been several incidents of Europeans depicting the Prophet Muhammad in cartoons or burning the Quran in acts that many...

Water Scarcity in the Arab World

Many prosperous ancient civilizations in the Arab world had at least one thing in common: an abundance of water. Today, however, the Arab region...

Latest Posts

The meltdown of autocratic regimes currently underway in the Arab world has led to the growth of ungoverned spaces. The resulting vacuum is being dominated by armed Islamist non-state actors – in particular Salafist-jihadist militias.

The three non-Arab powers – Turkey, Iran and Israel – are trying to manage the regional commotion according to their national interests.

It was during the Cold War era that a deep ideological chasm in the Middle East began to coagulate. The struggle between those who adopted European secularism and those who crafted an ideology based on religious tradition had its roots in late 19th century Ottoman Empire. Roughly 100 years later, this struggle had polarized the region.

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Required Reads: Middle East and North Africa

From our Forecast...

The Vienna nuclear talks will result in a settlement. The Israeli Air Force will not attack Iran’s nuclear sites.

Middle East and North Africa in our Memos

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Indian Separatism

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(click to enlarge) A Sikh separatist movement in India recently renewed its calls to establish a sovereign state called Khalistan. A young activist named Amritpal...

Daily Memo: Saudi-Syrian Talks, Hungarian Shift

Normalization talks. Saudi Arabia and Syria are in talks to resume consular services, according to Saudi state-run broadcaster Al-Ikhbariya. The foreign minister of Iran,...

Live Discussion: Update on Russia, Ukraine and Xi-Putin Talks

This week we had Ekaterina Zolotova in Moscow, Ridvan Bari Urcosta in Warsaw and Allison Fedirka in D.C. to discuss the latest geopolitical developments....

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