The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is a proposed multinational infrastructure initiative aimed at upgrading connectivity between the three regions through integrated trade, energy, and digital networks. Announced at the G20 summit in New Delhi in September 2023, IMEC is envisioned partially as a counterweight to China’s international infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative.
Syria’s New Investment Law and the Return of State-Mediated Market Access
As Syria moves toward reconstruction, the country’s new authorities have already made a consequential decision about who will control the postwar economy. Last June, President Ahmed al-Sharaa enacted Investment Law 114 by presidential decree, granting sweeping and permanent concessions to investors. Yet rather than make those incentives broadly accessible, the law preserves the country’s longstanding model of state-mediated market access.
MENA Energy Recap, Q1-2026: Four Lessons From the Return of Tail Risk
This is a special edition of the MENA Energy Recap — a quarterly review of key energy developments that took place in the region from January through March of 2026 and what they signal in the months ahead. For Q1-26, the recap considers some of the long-term implications of the ongoing war in the region, which have caused the largest energy supply disruption in history, and what lessons these events hold for both near- and long-term energy dynamics in both the Middle East and the wider world.
خارطة طريق لقيادة أمريكا في خطة عمل الذكاء الاصطناعي
استجابة لطلب المعلومات (RFI) من المؤسسة الوطنية للعلوم (NSF) ومكتب سياسات العلوم والتكنولوجيا (OSTP) بشأن "وضع خطة عمل للذكاء الاصطناعي" لدعم الأهداف المنصوص عليها في الأمر التنفيذي (EO) 14179، يقدم معهد الشرق الأوسط (MEI) خمس توصيات لترسيخ مكانة الولايات المتحدة كرائدة عالمية في مجال ابتكار الذكاء الاصطناعي مع معالجة المتطلبات الأخلاقية والتنظيمية والبنية التحتية الحاسمة.
Reimagining Syria: A Roadmap for Peace and Prosperity Beyond Assad
The work of the Syria Strategy Project and the considerable policy recommendations found in this report present a realistic and holistic vision for Syria’s recovery and reintegration into the international system.
Return to "maximum pressure": Opportunities and challenges
With the signing of a presidential memorandum on Feb. 4, the administration of Donald Trump has returned to a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, but circumstances have changed drastically since the policy of intensified sanctions was originally crafted during his first term. Regional geopolitics will present the White House with a new set of variables, while changes in the petroleum markets will affect how the administration approaches sanctions on oil exports.
تأثير الحرب الروسية الأوكرانية على تدفقات الطاقة من دول الخليج العربي
بعد مرور ما يقرب من ثلاث سنوات، أدى الغزو الروسي الشامل لأوكرانيا في فبراير 2022 إلى إعادة تشكيل التجارة والاستثمار في قطاع الطاقة، مما أدى إلى زيادة واردات الخليج من النفط الروسي وارتفاع حاد في صادرات المنطقة من الهيدروكربونات إلى أوروبا، فضلاً عن زيادة نمو استثمارات الخليج في مشاريع الطاقة المتجددة الموجودة في القارة والموجهة إليها.
On Dec. 8, 2024, Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell. This is a fact, but it woefully understates the enormity, speed, and consequences of what has transpired. The brutal dictatorship that ruled Syria for more than 50 years disintegrated in fewer than 10 days. Celebrations erupted across public squares, thousands of Syrian refugees lined up at the borders of Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon eager to return, and the release of political prisoners fueled hope for a new era after decades of despotism and conflict. However, concerns about Syria’s political future and territorial integrity quickly surfaced.
Mapping MENA’s Renewable Energy Supply Chains: The Emergence of Green Energy Ecosystems in the Middle East and North Africa
The Middle East and North Africa has the potential to become the world’s largest renewable energy-producing region. Compared to the immense scale of its resources, renewable energy is virtually untapped at present. This study maps the emerging regional trends in renewable energy development and MENA renewable energy supply chains across North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Levant. The most successful MENA nations in developing their renewable energy resources to date are doing so through the establishment of green energy ecosystems, in which the development of utility-scale renewable energy infrastructure is coordinated with that of robust offtake markets and the establishment of commercially viable storage and transportation mechanisms to service them.
Renewable Energy and Morocco’s New Green Industries Can Expand Women and Youth Employment through Sustainable Development
Morocco is a regional leader in renewable energy development. The country’s success stems from its multi-faceted green energy ecosystem that is giving rise to international renewable energy export supply chains based on production of green hydrogen, in the form of green am-monia, as well as phosphates, other minerals and metals, fertilizers, agri-food products, and electric vehicles. As rising green industrial manufacturing and green agricultural production are becoming drivers of long-term, private sector employment, a synergy is emerging between Mo-rocco’s efforts to expand its already significant renewable energy sector and its objective of in-creasing the number of women and young people engaged in formal employment.
MENA’s Emergence as a Hub for Renewable Energy Supply Chains
Within the next 25 years, the Middle East and North Africa will be a global leader in renewable energy production and a hub for international renewable energy supply chains. Morocco, the UAE, and Jordan are spearheading the regional trend to develop green energy ecosystems in which renewable energy is used, in part or entirely, to power the manufacture of intermediate and finished goods for export.
يوجد حالياً تباين بين الأهداف الاستراتيجية والظروف المواتية للطاقة الشمسية في الخليج ومستوى النشر الفعلي. على الرغم من الإمكانات الكبيرة للمنطقة كرائدة عالمية محتملة في مجال الطاقة الشمسية، بما في ذلك أحد أعلى مستويات الإشعاع الشمسي في العالم وظروف تشغيل داعمة قوية، لم تمثل الطاقة المتجددة سوى 2٪ من طاقة التوليد في عام 2022.
الطاقة الشمسية في الخليج: الرائدون والمتأخرون في الدعم التنظيمي لنشر الطاقة الشمسية
تقع دول الخليج الغنية بالهيدروكربونات في قلب الحزام الشمسي العالمي، مما يمنحها بعضًا من أكبر موارد الطاقة الشمسية في العالم. كما تتوافق ساعات الذروة في هذه البلدان بشكل جيد مع مستويات الإشعاع الشمسي اليومية والموسمية. ومع ذلك، فإن الاستخدام الفعلي للطاقة المتجددة، بما في ذلك الطاقة الشمسية، هو من بين الأدنى في العالم، على الرغم من زيادة الإنتاج بشكل كبير خلال السنوات الخمس الماضية. تحلل هذه الورقة الأسباب التي أدت إلى نجاح الطاقة الشمسية في بعض الدول، في حين لم تحقق سوى زخم ضئيل في دول أخرى.
The Outlook for Energy Demand Growth in the Middle East and North Africa: Regional Supply as a Critical Driver of Demand
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.
The Outlook for Energy Demand Growth in the MENA Region
The MENA region is set to experience substantial growth in demand for energy during the remaining years of the present decade. Factors driving this growth vary enormously by sub-region and individual country, but there are broad similarities in the forms of both primary and final energy demand growth that are expected to materialize by 2030.
Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor: A new era for Iran-Europe trade or just another risk?
The Persian Gulf-Black Sea International Transport and Transit Corridor, which Tehran proposed eight years ago, remains relevant today in the context of strategic competition, as it offers Iran and participating countries an alternative trade route that bypasses traditional Western-dominated shipping lanes, potentially reshaping regional economic dynamics and geopolitical influence.
Early recovery and rehabilitation in regime-controlled areas of Syria: An assessment
The following is a short abstract, offering the main analytical findings and policy takeaways from a newly released Middle East Institute report on post-war reconstruction in Syria.
