Rebecca Anne Proctor

America’s foreign policy needs a diversity of faith to face changing 21st century realities.

Washington must acknowledge that it can’t build a state.

Turkey’s efforts to strike a different tone were apparent on Jan. 25 in Istanbul, when Greek and Turkish officials resumed talks after a five-year gap to calm tensions in the Aegean and Mediterranean. The fact that the parties met is welcome news after the two came to the brink of war recently over offshore energy exploitation rights, but no one expected a breakthrough. The tensions between the two countries have a long history and the issues dividing Athens and Ankara are too deep to bridge.

With the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco signing normalisation agreements with Israel last year, the road to Israel’s integration into Centcom was paved.

Given the host of challenges that Algeria currently faces and consistent with past efforts to diversify its foreign relations, Algeria could seek to deepen its relationship with China — a rising global power with deep pockets and an expanding footprint in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and a country with which Algeria has already established a comprehensive strategic partnership. Yet, even under a scenario in which Beijing answers the call, it should not be assumed that the scale and contours of Chinese engagement will fundamentally change, will consist mainly of predatory economic activities and malign influences, or can rescue Algeria from structural problems of its own making.

Contents:

• Biden administration sends mixed signals on Afghanistan
• Iraq’s mounting security, economic, and political problems
• Blinken confirmation hearing: Carrots and sticks for the Middle East
• De-platforming comes to Iran

Biden administration sends mixed signals on Afghanistan

Marvin G. Weinbaum
Director, Afghanistan and Pakistan Studies

“أوضحت شهادة بلينكن أن نهج إدارة بايدن تجاه الشرق الأوسط سيكون إلى حد كبير عودة إلى الأوضاع الطبيعية”.

باحث ومدير برنامج الفضاء الإلكتروني بمعهد الشرق الأوسط

Should nothing change, the loss of cross-border aid access and the absence of cross-line mechanisms to northern Syria could potentially leave over 4.5 million civilians without assistance — a humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.

Because of football’s popularity, there is significant involvement by regime insiders. The Revolutionary Guards’ transition from barracks to boardrooms began back in the mid-1990s, when they took on management roles in some of the country’s most high-profile sports. Sports were not high on the agenda for the revolutionaries who overthrew the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979, but as sports has grown in popularity and in profitability, it has become increasingly politicized.  Over the past two decades, most sports clubs and related bodies have been taken over by political or security-military organizations, with former Revolutionary Guards holding the top positions.

As long as weapons transfers to armed non-state actors are not adequately restricted and the monopoly of violence is not exclusively in the hands of the government, it will be impossible to build sustainable peace in Yemen.

تابعوا معنا سلسلة “آراء من واشنطن” – فيديو مختصر أسبوعي من معهد الشرق الأوسط مع إبراهيم الاصيل حول آراء باحثي المعهد المتعلّقة ببعض أهم أحداث الأسبوع. سننشر الفيديو على حساباتنا على تويتر وانستغرام وفيسبوك!

In recent weeks, power outages and severe air pollution have plagued Iran’s major cities.

In 1906, the South Caucasus’ first energy pipeline was completed, connecting Baku on the Caspian Sea with Batumi on the Black Sea. More than 115 years later, this pipeline, measuring a mere eight inches in diameter and transporting kerosene, has been replaced with a modern network of natural gas and oil pipelines connecting the heart of Asia with Europe. With proper investment and the correct policies, even more oil, gas, and other goods will be flowing from the Caspian region to Europe and global markets.