Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
The most defining aspect of the Sino-Turkish relationship is the need for Turkey to find economic or geopolitical leverage to attain some semblance of equality with China. During Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s recent visit to Beijing, his subtle references to the Turkic and Islamic credentials of Xinjiang may have gotten lost in translation for the Chinese.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Ambassador David Hale joins MEI’s US-Lebanon Fellow Fadi Nicholas Nassar to discuss his book American Diplomacy Toward Lebanon: Lessons in Foreign Policy and the Middle East. They cover takeaways from his time as ambassador and the state of US-Lebanon and regional diplomacy following the Gaza war.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
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.
Even as more and more countries move toward authoritarianism, big cities across the world are becoming strongholds for pro-democracy forces, a fact underlined by the recent local elections in Israel and Turkey. So the question is, can cities lead a democratic revival in countries that have experienced a democratic recession?
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Six months since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and subsequent outbreak of war in Gaza, the deadly and devastating conflict looks no closer to concluding. Is it still possible to achieve a sustainable cessation of hostilities and restart the conflict-resolution process? To get there, what are the incentives and disincentives that could be constructed for the two main combatants, Israel and Hamas?
On this week’s episode, Murat Somer – Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Istanbul’s Ozyegin University – and MEI Turkey Program Director Gonul Tol join MEI Editor-in-Chief Alistair Taylor to discuss the main opposition party’s surprising victory in Turkey’s March 31 local elections. In what some are calling a “red wave,” the Republican People’s Party (or CHP) notched up victories in both major cities and smaller towns and villages, winning control of Turkey’s 5 largest metropolitan areas and 35 of its 81 provincial municipalities.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the threat of sea mines to maritime traffic in the region has become exponentially more acute. The Turkish-Romanian-Bulgarian trilateral minesweeping mission is a welcome sign of regional willingness to cooperate in this space and could, with the right incentives and sufficient political will, open the door to the establishment of a NATO Black Sea Fleet.
International funders have often called upon recipients to carry out reforms before any funding can be made available or the amount increased. But in many crisis-wracked countries, such as Lebanon, the prospect of reforms may be too distant, with intervention needed immediately. This is why greater emphasis must be placed on risk mitigation measures over which funders can exercise control.