When the Strait of Hormuz closed in March, fertilizer prices spiked within weeks, triggering a food security crisis across North Africa and the Sahel. Host Alistair Taylor is joined by MEI Senior Fellow Intissar Fakir to explore what it means for the region, unpack the link between food security and regional stability, and assess how the strait’s reopening could impact those affected.
This backgrounder provides an overview of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional political and economic alliance comprising six states in the Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
A Strategic Conundrum: Pakistan’s Transit Corridor to Iran as Lifeline or Liability
The US-Iran standoff over the Strait of Hormuz — disruptive to global trade and energy flows, and devastating for debt-burdened economies — has handed Pakistan an unexpected geoeconomic opportunity, one that may persist even if the framework agreement announced on June 14 results in a lasting peace and permanent reopening of the strait. But seizing it will have interlocking consequences for Islamabad’s ties with Tehran, Washington, and the Gulf states.
The Houthis are a political-military faction and Zaydi religious movement founded in northwestern Yemen in the 1980s. A key member of Iran’s Axis of Resistance with links to other militant organizations in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, the group has continued to pose a threat to Western interests on a global scale.
This backgrounder provides an overview of how the Abraham Accords came about, the US interests involved, their economic and strategic consequences, and the prospects for further enlargement going forward.
After a decade of post-Arab Spring isolation, Turkey’s leaders have recognized that their ambition to position the country as an agenda-setter on the world stage requires active engagement in all directions. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s consolidation of executive authority has centralized foreign policy decision-making and tied it to his domestic political priorities, transforming the country’s revisionist approach to one shaped primarily by personal and pragmatic interests.
As the Western Sahara conflict reaches its fifth decade, the territorial dispute remains unresolved and largely unknown. MEI’s Intissar Fakir unpacks the Western Sahara’s complex history and the rival claims by Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. She examines recent developments, such as President Trump’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the territory and the collapse of a 30-year cease-fire, as well as the core questions that remain unanswered after half a century.
Podcasts
Middle East Focus
MEI’s flagship weekly podcast on US foreign policy and contemporary political and social issues in the Middle East.
MEI Senior Fellow Brian Katulis engages friends, colleagues, and policy experts in casual conversations on the most important happenings in the Middle East.
Lebanon’s economic crisis: A tragedy in the making
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.
Political risk vs. risk to force: How policy decisions impact risk and capability in partner operations
Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) is the U.S. military’s name for the international intervention to defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq starting in 2014. While OIR has been a success, it has necessarily been imperfect. Throughout the campaign, cost-benefit calculations made by policymakers led to missed opportunities and possibly a longer conflict. These decisions will have lasting repercussions that could undermine the hard-won victory against ISIS, as well as the ability to partner in future interventions. In particular, the United States mishandled its partner relationships in the war to defeat ISIS. Political considerations apparently won out against supporting and sustaining the SDF, our military partner forces.
Russia’s growing ties with Iran-aligned militia groups
Russia is quietly strengthening its partnerships with Iran-aligned militia groups throughout the Middle East. While Russia’s military alliance with Hezbollah in Syria is well-documented, its relationships with Iran-aligned militias elsewhere in the MENA region are often overlooked. Russia engages with Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq on security challenges, defends Hezbollah from terrorism allegations, and holds negotiations with the Houthis on ending the Yemen war. These relationships bolster the Russia-Iran partnership, further Moscow’s regional ambitions, and help Iran-aligned militias diversify their array of global partners.
For Yemen’s Houthis, the status quo is the key to power
On Monday, March 22, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, proposed an initiative to end the war in Yemen in an offer that addressed various long-standing issues that the Houthis wanted to resolve, including lifting land and sea restrictions, and allowing fuel and food imports to the Houthi-held port of Hodeidah. The initiative proposed engaging the parties to the conflict to find a comprehensive peace agreement. The problem, however, is that the Houthis have no incentive to accept any peace proposal for the time being because a resolution to Yemen’s war, at least for now, is at odds with their political and military strategy.
Energy transition and climate change efforts in the Black Sea
The aim of COP21 in Paris was to establish global consensus and a binding agreement for climate change mitigation. And it did so, setting a goal to limit global warming to “well below 2 degrees Celsius” compared to preindustrial levels while pursuing efforts to stay even within the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold.
No kingmaker – and no king following Israel’s latest election
With virtually all of the vote in and results unlikely to change, it is clear: Not only will there be no kingmaker in Israel’s latest election, there will probably be no king.
The geopolitics of space: Why did the UAE send a probe to Mars?
On Feb. 9, 2021, the UAE made history when its Hope Probe reached Mars and communicated back to Earth. This made it just the sixth member of the elite group of countries that have reached the Red Planet, and the first Arab nation to do so. The UAE stressed that the Mars mission is a success for all Arabs and this significant scientific feat positions Abu Dhabi not just as a leader in the Middle East, but also as an important global player in space.
6 Key Steps for Targeted US Diplomacy to Stabilize Lebanon and Advance US Foreign Policy
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.
The Kin Who Count: Mapping Raqqa’s Tribal Topology
The northern Syrian governorate of Raqqa came to the world’s attention when it fell under the control of ISIS in 2014. Scenes of tribal leaders pledging allegiance to the group, after their governorate fell into its hands, raised many questions about the complex tribal dynamics in the area. Previous analyses of these dynamics have often misunderstood the intricate tribal structure and drawn false links between terrorism and tribalism. This research tool aims to shed light on Raqqa’s tribal structure, making it accessible to everyone interested in understanding the current state of affairs in the governorate.
India-UAE Relations: Poised to Climb to New Heights
The relationship with United Arab Emirates (UAE) is at the core of an assertive Indian approach to the Gulf subsumed under the “Extended Neighborhood Policy.” Mutually reinforcing economic visions and compatible geopolitical outlooks have laid the basis for a more robust and promising partnership between India and the UAE.
Amira Roess and Shahrokh Fardoust join host Alistair Taylor to discuss the public health and socio-economic impacts of the pandemic across the Middle East and North Africa, and how they compare to other parts of the world.
Opportunities for a stronger NATO in the Black Sea under Biden
The foreign policy priorities of President Joe Biden suggest greater commitment to NATO Allies and decisive steps to counter Russian subversion in Europe.
Challenging Israel’s exceptionalism in American politics
While support for Israel across the political spectrum remains strong in Washington, the traditional bipartisan consensus in favor of unconditional support for Israel has begun to fray in recent years.
The oldest peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the study of the modern Middle East, MEI’s flagship journal covers politics, society, and culture in the region.
