Research & Commentary Results

Middle East Focus Presents: ‘Taking the Edge Off the Middle East’ with Brian Katulis.

A series of casual conversations with leading policy professionals on the most important happenings in the Middle East today – hosted by MEI’s Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy, Brian Katulis.

Norman T. Roule is a member of MEI’s Iran Program Advisory Council. Roule served for 34-years in the Central Intelligence Agency, where his service included roles as Division Chief and Chief of Station at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations. He joins Brian to discuss the state of an ideologically contested Middle East, as well as the opportunities and challenges following the fall of the Assad regime.

This perilous moment for Syria’s future comes at a moment when American foreign policy in the region could change on a dime. President-elect Donald Trump has already stated the United States should have “nothing to do” with Syria’s future. But to do nothing would give the Islamic State a chance to surge once again.

اقرأ تقرير MEI الأسبوعي الذي يتضمن تحليلات الخبراء للتطورات الإقليمية الرئيسية للأسبوع المقبل.

The Middle East and North Africa is typically viewed from afar as a region of major energy exporters rather than consumers. Consumption patterns vary significantly within the region itself, but a variety of factors warrant giving its energy demand much closer attention than it generally receives on an international level. The range of factors that will determine the changes in demand from every country in the region, each with their respective intricacies, are far too numerous to examine in the space of this study. However, many of the key drivers that are expected to have a broad impact on shaping the evolution of regional demand to the end of the current decade deserve critical review.

In only six days, a broad coalition of advancing opposition forces coordinated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has captured all of Idlib province, almost all of Aleppo province, and a sizeable stretch of northern Hama — a humiliating defeat for Bashar al-Assad and illustrative of the fragility of regime rule in Syria.

اقرأ تقرير MEI الأسبوعي الذي يتضمن تحليلات الخبراء للتطورات الإقليمية الرئيسية للأسبوع المقبل.

To abandon the Syria mission now would bring no meaningful benefit to the US, but it would swiftly and significantly empower America’s adversaries, like ISIS, Iran, Russia, and Assad’s regime.

تعد الذكاء الاصطناعي محفزًا محوريًا للابتكار العالمي، حيث تتصدر الولايات المتحدة تطوير هذه التكنولوجيا التحويلية في خضم تنافسها المستمر مع الصين على القوة العظمى. يهدف هذا التقرير إلى تعريف مفهوم التفوق في مجال الذكاء الاصطناعي ومراجعة استراتيجية الولايات المتحدة في هذا المجال وفقًا لفهم أكثر شمولية له. كما يبحث التقرير في كيفية تأثير المنافسة على الأطراف الفاعلة في الشرق الأوسط، ولا سيما الإمارات العربية المتحدة والمملكة العربية السعودية، في محاولة لتوجيه الحوار حول السباق العالمي في مجال الذكاء الاصطناعي نحو مفهوم شامل لسيادة الذكاء الاصطناعي يرتكز على واقع الشؤون الدولية والتنافس بين القوى العظمى الأمريكية والصينية.

Middle East Focus Presents: ’Taking the Edge Off the Middle East’ with Brian Katulis.

A series of casual conversations with leading policy professionals on the most important happenings in the Middle East today – hosted by MEI’s Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy Brian Katulis.

Steven A. Cook, Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, sits down with Brian to discuss his latest book “The End of Ambition,” their policy outlook with the incoming Trump Administration, and deteriorating discourse in Washington policy circles. 

Under past reformist presidents, Iran repeatedly tried to build a grand bargain deal with the United States, entailing compromises over its nuclear program in return for negotiating spheres of influence across the Middle East. This September, speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York, the current reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed that he was open to direct talks with Washington to end hostilities.

The multiple wars that have erupted since Oct. 7, 2023, have already changed the strategic landscape in the Middle East — and more change is likely to follow.

it is possible to extrapolate how the incoming second Trump administration may respond to the complex situation in the Middle East by examining the president-elect’s record during his first term, what he has said since, as well as public statements of his running-mate, Sen. J. D. Vance. Two main issues are likely to dominate Donald Trump’s regional agenda when he comes to power: Iran and Israeli-Palestinian affairs.

Since the end of the civil war in Syria, government officials have inaugurated high-end tourist projects and upscale urban housing schemes, while at the same time preventing Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons from returning to their ruined neighborhoods or rebuilding their demolished homes. The focus on luxury housing in a country devastated by conflict and within a city suffering from massive destruction and housing shortages encapsulates the contradictions of the regime’s policy for reconstruction and early recovery not only in Damascus but in the whole country.

Middle East Focus Presents: ‘Taking the Edge Off the Middle East’ with Brian Katulis

A series of casual conversations with leading policy professionals on the most important happenings in the Middle East today – hosted by MEI’s Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy Brian Katulis.

Danielle Pletka, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, sits down with Brian to discuss how she made the jump from journalism to policy, her views on the Iraq War, and the need for strong leadership in US-MENA foreign policy. 

اقرأ تقرير MEI الأسبوعي الذي يتضمن تحليلات الخبراء للتطورات الإقليمية الرئيسية للأسبوع المقبل.