The “Anti-Strategic President” Needs to Revive a Policy Process to Resolve Iran
President Donald Trump’s disdain for strategy extends to process: mass National Security Council firings and reliance on a tiny circle of advisors have left the interagency policy process dormant amid the Iran war. The result is improvised, damaging moves like the Strait of Hormuz toll scheme. Reviving a professional, deliberative policy process is essential.
It has become a commonplace for Americans to describe our current war with Iran as stuck in a kind of limbo, neither full war nor real peace. We’re not the only ones. Iraq finds itself caught in a limbo of its own, between America and Iran, between the tolerable and the intolerable, between progress and relapse.
The Iraqi Peshmerga, the military arm of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), remains one of the United States’ most important defense partners in the Middle East. This monograph provides an in-depth assessment of Peshmerga combat effectiveness, particularly considering its experience in the war against the Islamic State and its subsequent clash with the Iraqi Army and Iran-backed militias. Drawing on past research and more than two dozen interviews with Peshmerga officers, US military officers, and subject matter experts, this study includes detailed policy recommendations as well as a discussion of their implications.
Since 1967, Israeli settlements in the West Bank have been a contested feature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The ultimate disposition of the settlements and ongoing activity related to their growth have repeatedly defied agreement in negotiations over a resolution to the conflict.
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.
The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is a proposed multinational infrastructure initiative aimed at upgrading connectivity between the three regions through integrated trade, energy, and digital networks. Announced at the G20 summit in New Delhi in September 2023, IMEC is envisioned partially as a counterweight to China’s international infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative.
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.
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.
On Sept. 26, Jordan dealt a double blow to drug traffickers by intercepting two drones packed with crystal meth from Syria. But this is just the tip of a rapidly growing iceberg. In the past two months alone, Amman has thwarted four more drones, each laden with a deadly cocktail of drugs, arms, and explosives. This surge illuminates a disturbing evolution in the tactics of smuggling networks operating in southern Syria.
Turkish escalation in northeastern Syria amid changes in military strategy
After several quiet months on the Turkish-Syrian border, tensions have escalated in recent days. Turkish forces have intensified their attacks against the SDF in northeastern Syria and targeted PKK hideouts along the Turkish-Iraqi border. This escalation is unfolding against the backdrop of the suicide blast in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, on Oct. 1 that targeted the Interior Ministry.
Carbon trading in the MENA region: Opportunities and challenges
One of the key outcomes of the COP26 meeting in Glasgow in 2021 was the establishment of Article 6, which regulates carbon markets under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is argued that carbon markets could lead to more rigorous climate action by enabling governments and entities to trade carbon credits generated by the reduction or removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, such as by phasing out fossil fuels and switching to renewable energy or conserving carbon stocks in ecosystems like forests.
In the latest installment of the Defense Rapid Reaction series, experts from MEI’s Defense & Security Program provide their views on the Oct. 7 Hamas surprise attack on Israel and what it might mean for Israelis and Palestinians, the wider region, and U.S. policy.
Understanding the legal drama in Israel: Will the Supreme Court prevent a constitutional crisis?
After a year of unprecedented events, Israel’s political and constitutional turmoil came to a head on Sept. 12, when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a critical case that will determine the future of the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul. The arguments concern the so-called Reasonableness Amendment, passed by Israel’s parliament in late July; this amendment to the country’s Basic Laws would partially strip the Supreme Court of its authority to review governmental acts.
The US Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy: A blueprint for building cyber talent in the Gulf
In July 2023, the White House released the National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy. The strategy is designed to address the cybersecurity workforce shortage by emphasizing skills-based hiring and lifelong learning. It also provides guidance for other nations, particularly in the Gulf region, as they undergo their own digital transformation and work toward gender equality in their workforces.
Syria’s Suwayda protests underscore pressing need for a political solution
Despite the great magnitude of the disaster that has befallen Syria over the past 12 years, Syrians have not wavered in their perseverance and belief in their right to a free and dignified life. In the city of Suwayda in the south, for the seventh consecutive week now, peaceful popular demonstrations continue with diverse participation from all segments of the Syrian people.
مظاهرات السويداء في سوريا تؤكد الضرورة الملحّة الى الحل السياسي
فمن مدينة السويداء في الجنوب ، وللأسبوع السابع على التوالي، تستمر مظاهراتها الشعبية السلمية وبمشاركة متنوعة لكل أطياف الشعب السوري ممن تمكن من الوصول لساحاتها، وتتجاوب معها بعض من المدن السورية، معيدة احياء مسيرة الثورة السورية التي انطلقت في أذار 2011.
Nagorno Karabakh offers the US a chance to make new friends and weaken old enemies
The latest war over Nagorno Karabakh lasted a single day, ending on Sept. 20. It is the third war over the region disputed between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the last three and a half decades.
But this time, it seems there was really only one party to the conflict. Armenia stayed out, leaving it to the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh to surrender.
A hundred thousand people have fled to Armenia, roughly 80 percent of the Karabakh population. What’s more, Armenia’s most powerful allies, Iran and Russia, appear to be distracted and marginally engaged.
Fires of Damascus: Protecting Syria’s homes and heritage from the failed and rapacious state
July 16, 2023, was a dark day for the ancient city of Damascus. A fire raged through the historic Sarouja neighborhood, reducing a number of heritage homes to ashes. Two months later, in September 2023, a residential building in the Syrian capital’s Malki neighborhood partially collapsed as a result of unauthorized excavation for a basement. While these events might not seem connected, they underscore an overarching issue: the vulnerability of Damascus properties in the face of natural and man-made crises, exacerbated by corruption, greed, and failed and vicious state policies.
Myths and realities of ‘gender apartheid’ in Afghanistan under the Taliban
The dire state of girls and women in Afghanistan under the Taliban, a tragedy that has featured frequently in international media reports in the last two years, came up for discussion in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on September 27. The UNSC convened for an open briefing, followed by consultations focusing on the severe restrictions imposed on the rights of women and girls in the country.
Climate change and the Arabian Sea: Adapting to a “new normal”
In the summer of 2022, flash flooding due to heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan, Oman, the UAE, and southeast Iran killed well over 1,000 people. In this part of the world, the extreme shifts in weather between monsoon and dry season dictate subsistence cycles and financial livelihood. Shifting global precipitation patterns due to climate change, however, are altering the timing and magnitude of these events. What can be done to adapt to this new reality? Can infrastructure be adapted, optimized, or possibly even reimagined to take advantage of such events?
Shared governance of groundwater resources: The case of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System
Groundwater resources are critical for the MENA region as much of it suffers from high water scarcity, and for some countries, groundwater aquifers are the only sources of available freshwater supply. The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System in northeastern Africa is one of the most prominent examples, and must be managed properly in order to maintain regional security and avoid transboundary conflicts.
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.
