The Strategic Cost of Palestinian Powerlessness
This report considers the lack of Palestinian political agency as a driver of regional insecurity that must be resolved before wider conflicts can be settled. The author analyses the conditions that contributed to the destruction of Palestinian political capacity, including Israeli policies, Palestinian shortcomings, and exploitation by Iran, and makes recommendations for an Arab strategic initiative.
Iran’s New Grand Design: The Next Evolution of the Axis of Resistance
Iran is transforming its Axis of Resistance into a decentralized, Yemen-centered network that leverages the Houthis to threaten both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb, extending Tehran’s coercive reach over the world’s key maritime chokepoints and reshaping the post-war balance in the Middle East and Red Sea.
الخبراء البارزون
MEI Art Gallery – August First Friday Open House
Dutch support for allied anti-Houthi airstrikes: Shared objectives with a pinch of opportunism
When the United States and the United Kingdom decided to strike Houthi targets inside Yemen to stop the group from launching attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, most European allies did not want to get involved in the operation. The sole exception was the Netherlands, which grabbed the opportunity to step forward and show its willingness to provide not only political but also military support, albeit largely symbolic.
Iranian youth and the protest movement in 2023: Drivers and limitations
Since the height of the protests in 2022, the government cracked down with a new degree of severity on the protesters, reducing their numbers on the street. Many leave if they can. Those who stay have adopted less visible shows of political and social dissatisfaction against the regime’s aggression.
Weekly Briefing: US wrestles with friends and foes as regional crisis continues
تحليل إقليمي متخصص من قبل باحثي ومساهمي معهد الشرق الأوسط.
US options to counter Houthi threat to global shipping
Overnight US and UK strikes on Thursday delivered a strong message to the Houthis: their attacks on global shipping in the Red Sea will not go unpunished.
The Houthis, Iran, and tensions in the Red Sea
Ansar Allah, the Yemen-based militant group commonly referred to as the Houthis, is arguably the latest and largest addition to the Iran-led Axis of Resistance. Present tensions in the Red Sea illustrate both the utility of the Houthis for Tehran’s anti-American and anti-Israel regional agenda as well as the challenges their actions can create for the Iranians.
Houthis see domestic and regional benefit to continued Red Sea attacks
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict in October, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have sought means to capitalize on the war in Gaza to raise their profile, enhance their pan-Arab legitimacy, and burnish their credentials both domestically and in the region. In their effort to insert themselves into the Gaza conflict, the Houthis believe their actions will strengthen their support base at home while also cementing their movement more firmly into the Iranian “Axis of Resistance.”
طموحات الأردن وأموال السعودية: نظرة على الاستثمارات السعودية في الأردن
في عام 2017، أنشأ صندوق الاستثمارات العامة السعودي وعدد من البنوك الأردنية صندوق الاستثمار السعودي الأردني لتوجيه 3 مليارات دولار إلى الاقتصاد الأردني. ويقدم مشروعان من مشاريع صندوق الاستثمار السعودي الأردني دراسات حالة ذات صلة بالتحديات التي تواجه الجهود الأردنية الأوسع نطاقاً لجذب المزيد من الاستثمار الأجنبي المباشر ودفع عجلة التنمية الاقتصادية.
Monday Briefing: The war is widening. Can anyone stop it?
اقرأ تقرير MEI الأسبوعي الذي يتضمن تحليلات الخبراء للتطورات الإقليمية الرئيسية للأسبوع المقبل.
US deterrence against Iran is damaged but not dead
US politicians should not pretend that military strikes can alone solve the problem of Iran and its proxies.
The Jews who disappeared from Iran and reappeared in Pakistan
In the mid-1980s, during the long war between Iran and Iraq, students at Tehran’s Jewish high schools would watch their friends suddenly disappear, and then reappear six months later in Europe, the U.S., or Israel. They would get there through a sophisticated smuggling operation that spirited Iran’s Jews out of the country and into Pakistan.
Iran amid conflicting geopolitical dynamics in the Middle East
As two contradictory trends of de-escalation in the Persian Gulf and a new round of war between Palestinians and Israelis unfold at the same time, Iran is trying to play its best cards and navigate its position. Iran views the region’s geopolitical and security conflicts as a chance to uphold its position and leverage it to advance its defined national interests.
Is Saudi-Israel normalization still on the table?
In response to the Oct. 7 attacks and subsequent bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip, most media outlets and think tanks concluded that Hamas initiated the war to sever the path toward normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Prior to the Hamas strike, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) said his country was moving steadily in the direction of normalizing relations with Israel.
Shifting Tides: Environment, History, and Culture Shape the Work of Bahraini Artists
تُترجم كلمة "البحرين" حرفياً إلى "أرض البحرين"، في إشارة إلى مصدرين للمياه داخل الجزيرة وحولها: الينابيع الأرضية والبحرية العذبة، والمياه المالحة المحيطة بالمحيطات. لعبت المياه دوراً محورياً في تاريخ هذه الدولة الجزرية الخليجية، وكان لها تأثير كبير على أعمال الفنانين البحرينيين، إلى جانب المناظر الطبيعية الفريدة والبيئة الطبيعية للبلاد، فضلاً عن تأثير التنمية الاقتصادية والحضرية السريعة.
Following emir’s death, Sheikh Mishal Al Sabah named Kuwait’s new ruler, signaling continuity
Sheikh Mishal al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al Sabah, Kuwait’s 83-year-old crown prince and half-brother of the late emir, was named to replace Sheikh Nawaf immediately following news of his death on Dec. 16.
اقرأ مجلة الشرق الأوسط
أقدم مطبوعة محكمة مخصصة لدراسة الشرق الأوسط المعاصر، تغطي مجلة MEI الرائدة السياسة والمجتمع والثقافة في المنطقة.