Expert regional analysis by MEI scholars and contributors.
Gender parity in the Middle East is still many decades away, but it will largely determine the future of economic, social, cultural, and political development in the region.
According to multiple media reports, Taliban anti-narcotics units have managed to effect a drastic reduction in opium cultivation in Afghanistan. Assisted by armed Taliban soldiers, stick-wielding personnel are hopping from one opium-growing field to another, destroying standing crops in a large number of provinces. Overseen by international media, such operations may have resulted in an almost 80 percent reduction in opium cultivation this year in the country, which not long ago accounted for 85 percent of the world’s opium.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Libya’s political players have grappled with how to build a political party culture since the country held its first post-Gadhafi elections in 2012. Under Moammar Gadhafi, political organizing was banned. Decades of regime propaganda against outlawed opposition movements made Libyans suspicious of political groups and parties.
Last week’s collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River in Ukraine is one of the largest environmental disaster the Black Sea region and Europe has faced in decades. Its far-reaching environmental, economic, and humanitarian consequences will affect not just Ukraine and the Black Sea region, but also the Middle East and Africa.
In the latest installment of the Defense Rapid Reaction series, experts from MEI’s Defense & Security Program provide their views on what reforms to the U.S. Foreign Military Sales process could or should accomplish and how an improved approach to approving foreign arms sales can strengthen U.S. relations with international partners and allies.
The Sahel region of West Africa suffers from escalating cycles of inter-communal violence that have resulted in countless deaths of innocent people. As this worsening situation continues to spread, it has come to be one of the most prominent threats to security and socio-political stability in the region.
The likelihood of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan successfully extricating himself from his entwined battle with the Army now appears to be nearly impossible. He has crossed too many red lines for the military establishment to give him slack. The developing situation ahead of the October elections looks set to culminate with Khan imprisoned and stripped of his political party.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
An ongoing power struggle for the position of ambassador at the Afghan embassy in New Delhi underlines India’s diplomatic quandary about the nature of its engagement with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Rather than addressing the critical gaps in Somalia’s security, President Hassan Sheikh has chosen to prioritize nation-building over state-building, diverting scarce resources needed to stabilize areas liberated from al-Shabaab. The Biden administration has enabled President Sheikh’s nation-building project through its partner-led, U.S.-enabled approach.
International leaders are struggling to manage a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan; they are torn between their commitment to alleviate Afghans’ suffering and their reluctance to legitimize a Taliban government that violates its people’s basic rights. Helping Afghans but not their new “de facto authorities” is a difficult balance for a diverse group of international actors with often divergent long-term interests.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.