Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
MEI’s Center for Strategy and Emerging Technology participated in the second annual Global Cybersecurity Forum in Riyadh this past week. Here are our reflections on the conference, the conversations we had there, and the GCF’s overall agenda.
Cholera continues to sweep through Syria and Lebanon at an alarming pace, leaving thousands sick and hundreds dead in its wake, with only a small fraction of cases officially registered in databases.
Since winning the Israeli elections on Nov. 1, Benjamin Netanyahu leads a bloc that is ideologically homogeneous in ways never before seen, with a majority of religious nationalists and ultra-Orthodox parties set to enter government and likely to work cohesively for the next four years, unlike in the past.
Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has given rise to speculation that it might fully withdraw from Syria, creating a power vacuum that could ignite new fighting. Yet these fears are likely misplaced and a deeper examination of the current state of Syria reveals unique opportunities for engagement from the international community.
The Ukraine grain export deal, which Turkey helped mediate over the summer, was saved last week to much fanfare; but the central unaddressed issue remains lifting Russia’s illegal blockade of Ukrainian ports, so Ukraine can freely trade with the world.
If the West is committed to not repeat the mistakes of the past, it can forge a third way that honors the protestors and rejects the tyrants in Tehran.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
The Turkish economy’s foreign exchange liquidity problem is getting worse. The current account balance has been in the red this year with a monthly deficit of around $5 billion. The government has so far managed to avoid a repeat of the December 2021 currency shock by restricting capital mobility, further tightening regulations in October 2022.
The latest Nationally Determined Contributions assessment report demonstrates that the parties to the Paris Agreement are boosting their plans to reduce carbon emissions.
However, current climate mitigation efforts are still insufficient to curb future global temperature increases to below 2°C — with a projected average temperature rise of 2.8°C by the end of century.
With Egypt hosting COP 27 this week, all eyes are on climate change in the MENA region. For today’s episode, Senior Fellow and Director of the Climate and Water Program Mohammed Mahmoud asked several of MEI’s Climate and Water Program scholars what they consider to be the most pressing issues regarding climate change, water resources, and the environment. Today’s guests include Andrei Covatariu, Athraa Khamis, Malak Altaeb, Megan Ferrando, Orestes Morfin, and Youssef Wehbe.
On Nov. 1, Israel’s democracy was shaken, perhaps as never before. It is not so much that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been returned to power, but that if he does become prime minister again, as seems overwhelmingly likely, it will undoubtedly be with crucial support provided by the “Religious Zionism” party, which includes “Jewish Power,” the vehicle of the veteran neo-Kahanist Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The Iranian regime is pointing the finger at Israel and the U.S. for allegedly orchestrating the nationwide protests. But while the U.S. and Israel both might have an interest in shaping and aiding the protest movement once it began, this large-scale mobilization of the Iranian public is a result of the regime’s own policies.
The 22nd Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Uzbekistani city of Samarkand this past September turned out to be a boon for Iran’s regional policy. Not only was the Islamic Republic extended a roadmap to join the grouping, but the meeting also offered a convenient opportunity to revive and strengthen ties with Uzbekistan.
In today’s episode, Alistair Taylor sits down with experts from MEI’s Frontier Europe Initiative to assess the trajectory of Russia’s war on Ukraine. They discuss Russia’s growing attacks on critical infrastructure, its recent deployment of Iranian drones and their impact on the battlefield, the potential nuclear threat, and where things might be headed from here.