الأبحاث والتعليقات

A vital part of Iran’s long-running grey zone warfare strategy is plausible deniability, as they most often work through proxies in the Middle East. And so the easiest way to keep Iran from taking action is to make sure the Islamic Republic knows the spotlight is on them.

Many big polluters around the world, including in the Middle East and North Africa, use “greenwashing” to cover up their environmentally detrimental practices by claiming they are sustainable, eco-friendly, and low carbon in an effort to deceive people about climate action. This creates the false impression that everything has changed without actually changing anything at all.

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

On Nov. 21, the Iranian-backed Houthi militia launched a drone attack against the Dhabba Oil Terminal in Yemen’s Hadramawt Governorate. The threat of further attacks on oil ports and military targets remains high as the militant group tests the tolerance and response of Yemen’s government and the international community while increasing its demands.

Despite his rural Sunni roots, one general has managed to play a part in nearly every step of the regime’s counter-revolution, all while building a web of networks across much of Syria as he worked his way up the complex internal ladders of the mukhabarat: Maj. Gen. Hussam Luka.

Over the past three months, there has been a massive outpouring of support around the world for the people of Iran, and especially Iranian women, amid the ongoing nationwide protests. International women’s organizations have played a central role in this effort, backing the protests, condemning the harsh government crackdown and Iran’s discriminatory laws, and pushing for the expansion of rights for women and all Iranians. Here are four things women and women’s organizations around the world have been doing to help.

Artificial intelligence is expected to significantly impact humanity’s progress, to the extent that Google CEO Sundar Pichai compares AI-induced advancement to being on par with that ushered in by fire and electricity. There are plenty of skeptics, however, like world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, who have raised doubts about whether it can be controlled in the long term and speculated that its development could even spell the end of the human race.

Georgia’s major seaports form a vital link in the transit of commerce via the Black Sea, but they are threatened by local and transnational involvement in illicit seaborne trade motivated by high income inequality, poverty, and population displacement. Enhancing maritime security in this geostrategic South Caucasus transit state aligns with the strategic interests of the U.S. and NATO.

Should the Turkish government make good on its threats to launch yet another military incursion into northern Syria, it would lead to a sharp escalation in violence in a country afflicted by a more-than-decade-long brutal conflict. Not only would Turkey’s military incursion have significant immediate effects on civilians and combatants in Syria, but it could also reverberate further throughout the region and world.

Aoun’s talk of a modern state appeared to be a smokescreen to mislead those who followed him into thinking the path to reform lay with the general. As the past six years have made all too clear, his objective seemed squarely fixed on gaining a permanent seat for himself at the table of Lebanon’s sectarian elite and securing his legacy.

Under what conditions is the United States likely or unlikely to intervene militarily on behalf of a close partner with which it may have defense arrangements short of a formal alliance? This is an increasingly relevant question for the United States as it engages in strategic competition with China and Russia for regional partners, as well as for resources and broader influence.

In recent years, the United States has stepped up its efforts to promote a Middle East security order in which cooperation is more widely preached and effectively practiced among like-minded nations. Nowhere has this multilateral approach to regional security been more credible and fruitful than in the maritime domain.

Over the past two years, the steady expansion of terrorist and fundamentalist threats in the Sahel has not gotten the attention it deserves. Algeria’s regional diplomatic clout, military might, and experience in fighting terrorism could help Sahelian states ward off an imminent political and security collapse.

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

On Nov. 30, the Islamic State announced that its leader, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, had been killed in battle and that his successor, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi, was now in place. Hours later, the United States military’s Central Command confirmed the death of Abu al-Hassan, adding that it had occurred in Daraa, in southern Syria, in mid-October at the hands of “the Free Syrian Army.”