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Even if we assume that there is goodwill between the U.S. and Iran to improve relations, the power of algorithms will place major stumbling blocks in the way of efforts toward future normalization. A priori programming of foreign policy options and lines of argument have led to immutable algorithms causing the relationship between the two countries to calcify. On both sides, the key personalities who define national security, interpret events, and shape policies toward one another have had virtually no direct contact or experiences with each other’s country. They interpret events, extract meanings, react to one another, and delineate policies through prisms, images, metaphors, binaries, groupthink, and in the lexicon of artificial intelligence, algorithms.
The announcement of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP), a 25 year-long economic and development agreement between China and Iran, has immediately added to the intensifying discourse concerning US-China Geostrategic Competition. Nonetheless, a closer look at its implications suggests that it may be useful in achieving some U.S. goals with Iran: particularly regime modernization.
“يبدو أن كل شيء له علاقة بالمؤتمر في تركيا مازال مُعلقًا”.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
“يبدو الحفاظ على النسخة الأصلية من “خطة العمل الشاملة المشتركة” هو أفضل السُبُل لروسيا لمواءمة هذه الاعتبارات الثلاثة”.
إن تجاهل القيادة اللبنانية المستمر للمكافآت والحوافز– ناهيك عن المناشدات الأخلاقية – يدل على عدم فعالية هذه السياسة في فرض تغيير بنَّاء وحقيقي في سلوك هؤلاء القادة
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
For decades now, decentralization has been a recurring theme in Lebanese politics. That it is “administrative” does not make it any less “political” in a country where even minor technicalities can easily turn into major controversies. Yet decentralization is still perceived as one of the key reforms that has yet to come about.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
For the past 18 months, Lebanon has been reeling from a wrenching economic crisis. This essay deciphers the crisis’s origin, describes the current juncture, and reflects on the likely outcomes in the proximate future.
The Middle East Institute and the American Task Force on Lebanon (ATFL) have collaborated with the Lebanese International Finance Executives (LIFE) to produce an urgent Lebanon-focused policy brief. The brief outlines recommendations to the Biden Administration for empowering an international coalition to support the Lebanese people and strengthen their capability to promote real change.
“بينما تعد ندرة المياه في إيران وبقية دول الشرق الأوسط مشكلة طويلة الأمد، فإن بعض الجهود للتعامل معها تبدو محاولات يائسة ولم يتم التخطيط لها دائمًا بعناية”.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.