Analysis

This article compares the local responses to the 2012-2018 outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) to that of the Avian Influenza outbreak in Southeast Asia from 2003-2015. How well do countries cope with the spread of new and deadly diseases? Why are some countries better at addressing the problem than others? And, what does this tell us about larger questions concerning states’ abilities to provide public goods (in this case health security) to their citizens and about global systems to prevent pandemics? What this comparison demonstrates is that countries with the ‘strongest’ state capacity to make and implement policy are best able to confront disease outbreaks.

Unlike other cases of repression against Muslims around the world, such as Myanmar, the Gulf monarchies have been silent about the “cultural cleansing” taking place in China’s Xinjiang Province.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Hezbollah remain at loggerheads over the formation of a new government. The dispute has now entered its eighth month and the country is slowly tiptoeing towards a financial crisis.

2019 will likely be an unhappy year for Turkey. Challenges abound, both at home and abroad.

Moscow has renewed its offer to act as an independent, third-party mediator between Israel and the Palestinians as Palestinians grow wary of the Trump administration and question Washington’s traditional role as Mideast peace broker following President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017.

In recent months fighting has repeatedly broken out between Syrian and Iranian-backed militias around Deir ez-Zor, initially over control of taxes and smuggling routes, but increasingly the conflict has taken on a strategic dimension as well.

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Gerald Feierstein, Paul Salem, Alex Vatanka, W. Robert Pearson, and Mirette F. Mabrouk provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent visit to the Middle East, recent protests in Sudan, Iranian outreach to Baghdad, President Trump’s discussion with President Erdogan on treatment of the Kurds, and the first meeting of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum.

Whether we stay in or pull out from Afghanistan, America faces the likelihood of significant and enduring costs.

Since Sheikh Tamim became emir in 2013, and especially since the diplomatic and economic blockade of Qatar began in mid-2017, Doha and Mexico City have begun to develop an increasingly fruitful partnership.

Under the leadership of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party (AKP) has Islamist roots, religion has become a critical instrument of Turkish foreign policy.

The launch of King Salman Energy Park, a new megaproject intended to reinforce Saudi Arabia’s position as a global energy hub, reflects a more cautious approach to economic development in the kingdom and foreshadows a less ambitious economic agenda in 2019.

On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraq’s then prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, declared victory over ISIS. However, in the year since then Iraq has continued to face critical challenges, including an internally displaced person crisis and the legitimization of militia groups.

This article discusses the broad effort by Korean firms — supported by three successive administrations — to enhance their position in the fiercely competitive Gulf regional market at a time when the domestic economy is sputtering.

A new crisis is brewing between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and this one is going to be much more severe and damaging than the dispute over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

At first glance Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria might seem to benefit Moscow. But dig a little deeper and the situation becomes much less clear and creates a lot of ambiguity and complexity for Russia.