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Ross Harrison is a senior fellow and book series editor at the Middle East Institute (MEI). He is also a faculty member in the Political Science Department at the University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches courses on Middle East politics and US foreign policy in the Middle East. From 2004 to 2020, he was the Professor in the Practice of International Affairs at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Harrison annually teaches a course on strategy and international security to senior Georgian government officials at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies in Tbilisi, Georgia, a program funded by the US Department of State.
He has published extensively on Middle Eastern regional dynamics in leading journals such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest. Mr. Harrison is the author of Strategic Thinking in 3D: A Guide for National Security, Foreign Policy and Business Professionals (Potomac Books, 2013), as well as the co-editor of From Chaos to Cooperation: Toward Regional Order in the Middle East (Middle East Institute, 2017) and Escaping the Conflict Trap: Toward Ending Civil Wars in the Middle East (Middle East Institute, 2019).
He holds an MA from the University of Pittsburgh.
Ross Harrison is the author of Decoding Iran’s Foreign Policy, a new book published by I.B. Tauris.
MEI Senior Fellow Ross Harrison breaks down how this foreign policy approach can help mitigate conflict—and how both Washington and Tehran may have undermined their own ambiguity during the recent 12-day war, with potentially lasting consequences for regional stability.
The United States struck three nuclear facilities in Iran on the evening of June 21, in the midst of the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict. MEI scholars provide real-time analysis to help make sense of what this escalation means and what might come next.
MEI’s experts react to the Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear program and the consequences for the wider region.
This week, US President Donald Trump makes his inaugural visit to the Middle East since the start of his second term, traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates on May 13-16. Amid the heightened focus on US policy toward the Middle East, MEI’s experts take stock of Trump’s trip to the Gulf, how his administration has shaped its approach to the wider region in its first several months, and how regional actors are responding to the policies coming out of Washington.
It is no surprise that both Iran and the United States have approached their first diplomatic engagement in four years with wariness. There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about the probability of the negotiations culminating in a deal. But it would be a mistake to assume that the conditions in 2025 are the same as existed in 2015. Time is not on the Iranians’ side now and changes afoot in the Middle East and the broader global community give Iran an incentive to move toward an agreement, assuming that Washington is sincere and realistic in its negotiations with Tehran.
The month of April saw a series of unprecedented escalations in the long-simmering Iranian-Israeli conflict, with both countries launching missile and drone attacks against the other’s territory for the first time in history.
In the wake of these strikes, what will be the impact on the regional security and political environment going forward, what is needed to stabilize the new rules of the game, and how can US diplomacy help to facilitate that process? MEI has asked its experts to weigh in.
Policymakers in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East are rightly focused on where the current crisis in Gaza is headed. The humanitarian disaster hovering over the region since Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel has resulted in countless lives lost and now threatens regional and global security. Among many of the issues occupying policymakers is the concern that new fronts in the war will open, potentially involving the West Bank, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and even Iran.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Several foreign ministers gathered in an Asian capital to negotiate an end to regional turmoil. One of the countries represented at the meeting brokered an agreement to end hostilities between the others.
Ten of the most important or far-reaching events and trends that dominated the MENA region in 2022.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Look to the people of the region first, then the evolving competition among regional states and global powers, for signs on what to expect.
