Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
After 10 months of Israel’s war on Gaza, the US administration has lost control over its ally and the fear of its opponents. As a result, Washington has only limited, if any, impact on the cost-benefit escalation calculus of the fighting sides. The Middle East is today the closest it has ever been to an all-out multi-front regional war.
In a new special briefing, scholars from across MEI weigh in with their thoughts on the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and the potential regional impact.
This week’s episode looks at the dramatic regional developments of the past 24 hours, including the Israeli strike on a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut and the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. The strikes mark a significant escalation, and are expected to provoke retaliation from Iran and Hezbollah that could potentially ignite a wider regional conflict.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
In reaction to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Gaza war, the Biden administration articulated six main objectives. After nine months of the Israel-Hamas conflict, which has repeatedly threatened to spill out into neighboring theaters, the Biden administration’s success toward achieving these goals has mostly declined, not for a lack of effort but rather a reflection of considerable challenges in the environment and major shortcomings in policy conceptualization and implementation.
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 Middle East Institute (MEI) and the American Task Force on Lebanon (ATFL) convened a group of experts on Lebanon who co-authored this policy brief.
Executive Summary
As tensions between Israel and Hezbollah escalate, the specter of a full-scale war, with the potential to draw in the United States and Iran, demands the US’s immediate attention. The Biden-Harris Administration has tasked, in response, White House Senior Advisor Amos Hochstein with mediating efforts to de-escalate the conflict and bring stability to the Lebanon-Israel border.
Nearly six decades after Kanso moved to America and began his career as a visual artist, his work remains enormously important, channeling the zeitgeist of our uncertain and violent era. Yet as dark as Kanso’s vision is, he also reminds us that even the most hellacious of contexts can contain light and the possibility of rebirth and renewal.
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.
Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Mishal Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, took his next step in governance without a parliament in place on June 1, when he appointed Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Sabah as crown prince. Although the timing of the announcement suspending portions of the constitution and dissolving the parliament caught most observers off guard, the emir’s decision was not surprising.
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.