MENASource brings you up-close to a region at the epicenter of geo-political headlines. It is the Atlantic Council’s hub for in-depth commentary about breaking news, key topics, and trends from our team of experts on the Middle East and North Africa.

The views expressed in MENASource are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Learn more about the Middle East

Sudan’s security services target refugees in Cairo

MENASource
Dec 7, 2025

One year after Assad’s fall, here’s what’s needed to advance justice for Syrians

The second year of a post-Assad Syria requires structural reform, victim-centered leadership, and international reinforcement.

Read More

Sudan’s security services target refugees in Cairo

MENASource
Nov 20, 2025

Saudi Arabia’s next horizon: Building human capital beyond Vision 2030

By
Khalid Azim

Riyadh still needs to take fully support small and medium-sized enterprises—the true engines of job creation.

Economy & Business
Middle East

Sudan’s security services target refugees in Cairo

MENASource
Nov 10, 2025

The Nile at a crossroads: Navigating the GERD dispute as Egypt’s floodwaters rise

By
Alessia Melcangi

The latest escalation between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia coincides with a diplomatic shift from the United States.

Africa
Climate Change & Climate Action

Stay Updated


Content

MENASource

Oct 30, 2018

Sudan’s security services target refugees in Cairo

By Mat Nashed

When Sudan’s government was bombing hospitals in one of its own states in 2011, Kareem was among the activists detailing the atrocities. His work tracking the counterinsurgency in South Kordofan made him a target for Sudan’s security services, and in December 2012 he was accosted by two men who sprayed him with a nerve agent that put him in the hospital.

North Africa
Sudan

MENASource

Oct 22, 2018

The Khashoggi reset

By Frederic C. Hof

The murder of Jamal Khashoggi—a resident of the United States and a citizen of a Kingdom that owed him protection—highlights the purely transactional nature of the relationship between Riyadh and Washington.

Saudi Arabia

MENASource

Oct 19, 2018

Murder in Istanbul and the Turkish Saudi rivalry

By Aaron Stein

On October 2, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi national living in self-exile in the United States, walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. That was the last time he was seen alive.

Saudi Arabia
Turkey

MENASource

Oct 16, 2018

The chilling effect of the Khashoggi case: A trigger for Arabs living in fear

By Tuqa Nusairat

Since the apparent murder-disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2, analysts have focused primarily on the implications for US-Saudi relations and the future of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s vision for domestic reforms. Absent from policy discussions and analysis is the impact of brutally silencing a mild critic of an autocratic regime on the psyche of 450 million Arabs, most of whom still live under regimes that severely limit freedoms of speech, protest, political participation, and religion.

Saudi Arabia

MENASource

Oct 15, 2018

The Khashoggi affair: Back to the future

By Nabeel Khoury

From the abuses of the male guardianship in Saudi Arabia to arrest and torture of dissenters in Egypt and the jailing of environmentalists and journalists in Iran, the Middle East is rife with human rights abuses. Nor is this something new.

Saudi Arabia

MENASource

Oct 9, 2018

A case in context: From the Lebanese Civil War to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

By Faysal Itani and Anthony Elghossain

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has just heard the closing arguments in Ayyash et. al, on September 21, 2018; a case in which prosecutors charged four members or associates of Hezbollah with the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. Thirteen years after the assassination, judges are in the process of making their judgement.

Middle East
Syria

MENASource

Oct 5, 2018

Iraqi Kurdistan’s parliamentary elections: Inflection point or plateau?

By Shivan Fazil

The people from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) headed to the polls this week to elect 111 members of the Kurdistan Regional Parliament. This is the fifth general election following the creation of the regional legislature in 1992, and it was the first since last year’s controversial independence referendum.

Iraq

MENASource

Oct 4, 2018

Moroccan conscription: An unfinished process

By Sarah Alaoui and Leila Hanafi

If passed by the country’s two parliamentary chambers, an expedited draft law 44.18 would reinstate mandatory military service for both Moroccan men and women between the ages of nineteen and twenty-five by the end of next year.

Morocco
North Africa

MENASource

Oct 3, 2018

Yemen’s humanitarian crisis persists, despite humanitarian funding

By Afrah Nasser

When over $2 billion was pledged for the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan (YHRP) earlier this year, it was considered not only a success but also the best funded response plan worldwide according to anonymous aid workers who spoke to the author during the UN General Assembly. So far, 65% of the pledged funds have been delivered. The delivery of the remaining funding is expected throughout this year.

Yemen

MENASource

Sep 26, 2018

Egypt’s options in the development of the Ethiopian dam

By Hafsa Halawa

For decades, Egypt focused primarily on its foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa, and in the process neglected its Horn of Africa policy. Meanwhile, Ethiopia began construction on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile River. Problems along the Nile continue for Egypt as droughts, rising temperatures, and general effects of climate change demand a response to Egypt’s growing water needs.

North Africa
Load More