Why Iran’s Militant Kurds Stayed out of the US-Iran War
In March, there was talk of armed Kurdish fighters opening a second front in Iran’s northwest, but it never happened — for several very good reasons.
Trump’s Missions Unaccomplished on Foreign Policy
Three months after the Iran war began, the United States and Iran are engaged in talks aimed at ending the crisis, even as both sides conducted limited military strikes against each other this week and a separate-but-linked conflict between Israel and Hizballah in Lebanon continued to escalate.
Featured Experts
Why Iran’s clerical establishment still holds as protests rage
Can Iran’s Regime Survive This?
What happens next as violent protests continue in Iran and death toll rises
Eyre: US Strike in Iran Could Become a Regional Problem
Trump, Maduro, and Iran
America’s dramatic capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro has set the stage for the conduct of America’s national security strategy in 2026. It has also raised questions.
Bonus Episode: Tehran’s Brewing Troubles
Iran’s political deadlock — and a way out the regime is unlikely to take
On Sunday, December 28, Iran’s latest wave of unrest began not on a university campus or in a symbolic political square, but in the very heart of the country’s economic sphere: the Grand Bazaar commercial center in downtown Tehran. What distinguishes the current moment is not simply the persistence of unrest but its emotional register. Iranian commentary increasingly describes not just hardship but a collapse of expectations of a better future.
Why Iran may not be the next Venezuela despite twin threat from protests and Trump
Iran’s Axis of Resistance after the 12-day war: Adaptation, restructuring, and reconstitution
Since Israel’s 12-day war against Iran, Tehran and its network of regional proxies and non-state allies, the so-called Axis of Resistance, have entered a phase of strategic dormancy — an outward calm concealing rearmament, financial adaptation, and ideological renewal.
Rob Malley Argues Two States Is an Illusion
Brian sits down with Robert Malley, a former US official best known for his role as the lead negotiator of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Malley discusses the motivations behind his new book, Tomorrow Is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine, and offers his assessment of American perspectives on the war in Gaza. The conversation also explores his personal background as the son of an Egyptian Jewish father and an American Jewish mother—both outspoken on the political left—and how that upbringing shaped his worldview, alongside a career spanning the Clinton, Obama, and Biden administrations.
The Axis of Resistance
This backgrounder provides an overview of the Axis of Resistance, a loosely aligned network of armed groups and state actors led and supported by Iran to project its influence and military strength across the Middle East.
How Iraq’s vote will shape the next phase of US-Iran competition
For Iran, Iraq is strategic depth, political sanctuary, and economic lifeline all at once. The results of the November 11 Iraqi elections will decide who in Baghdad controls the budgetary levers, internal security appointments, and committees that could codify, or constrain, Iraq’s Iran-backed militias.
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The oldest peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the study of the modern Middle East, MEI’s flagship journal covers politics, society, and culture in the region.