Through our Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, the Atlantic Council works with allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.

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Meet our blogs

MENASource

MENASource follows movements across the region and provides news and analysis on current events, including a platform for Middle Eastern perspectives, among others, on major issues—economic, political, security, cultural—that are at stake in the post-Arab Spring era.  

IranSource

IranSource provides a holistic look at Iran’s internal dynamics, global and regional policies, and posture through unique analysis of current events and long-term, strategic issues related to Iran.

All commentary & analysis

MENASource

Nov 18, 2019

Explainer: Iraq’s autumn of discontent

By Christiana Haynes

Waves of protests have hit Iraq this past October and November, calling for the resignation of the post-war government and sweeping changes. Last month alone, there have been reports of hundreds of protesters killed and thousands wounded by security forces in clashes across the country, from Tahrir Square in Baghdad to cities like Diwaniyah, Najaf, […]

Corruption
Iraq

New Atlanticist

Nov 15, 2019

A crisis of commitment in the Middle East. But whose?

By Kirsten Fontenrose

While US actions are causing confusion about Washington’s commitment, regional actions are also calling into question the region’s commitment to its relationship with the United States and to its own stability.

Middle East
Politics & Diplomacy

IranSource

Nov 13, 2019

Iran and Europe play nuclear chicken

By Barbara Slavin

Neither Europe nor Iran wants to see the destruction of the JCPOA, which represented for each the culmination of twelve years of hard diplomatic work, initially without US participation.

Iran
Middle East

MENASource

Nov 12, 2019

Revolution in Lebanon

By Frederic C. Hof

The peaceful protests sweeping Lebanon are revolutionary. Lebanese of multiple political persuasions and all sects have a powerful message for a political class whose incompetence is equaled only by its corruption: Go Away.  To date the principal defender of this abysmal political class and Lebanon’s miserable status quo (featuring a failing economy from which the […]

Corruption
Middle East

MENASource

Nov 12, 2019

Art of the Egyptian revolution

By MENASource

In 2011, Egyptians came out in unprecedented numbers to organize and build a revolution that inspired the region. One of the ways they did this was through street art. MENASource interviewed well-known Egyptian artist Ammar Abo Bakr on how street art began in Egypt and where it stands today.

Human Rights
Middle East

SyriaSource

Nov 8, 2019

The death of Baghdadi: How ISIS used al-Qaeda’s mistakes to grow a caliphate

By Amanda E. Rogers

Optimistic predictions about the end of the Islamic State (ISIS) surged in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s October 27 press conference announcing the death of the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but prove misguided in the long term. The threat posed by ISIS remains high, particularly outside the para-state’s previously held territories in […]

Extremism
Iraq

SyriaSource

Nov 7, 2019

Journalists in northeast Syria fear the return of state security services

By Dan Wilkofsky

US President Donald Trump’s decision in early October to withdraw American troops from the Syria-Turkey border put the US’s local partner in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS, Daesh), the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in an unenviable position. Faced with an offensive by Turkey, NATO’s second largest military, the SDF struck a deal with […]

Conflict
Media

MENASource

Nov 7, 2019

Saudi-backed Yemeni government and separatists sign power-sharing agreement

By MENASource

On Tuesday, November 5, the Hadi government signed a power-sharing agreement with southern separatists in Riyadh. The separatists and Hadi-led Yemen Government are backed by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, specifically by the United Arab Emirates. Infighting between them further fractured the civil war in August when the separatists seized Aden from Saudi-led forces. It […]

Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding
Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Nov 1, 2019

Iraq’s government cannot reform itself

By Samir Sumaidaie

The Iraqi government, as it is constituted now and despite all past and present promises and claims to the contrary, does not have the political will or the capacity to deliver good governance. That is why the first demand of the protesters is for the government to step aside and be replaced—hopefully peacefully by constitutional steps—by an emergency administration.

Democratic Transitions
Iraq

MENASource

Oct 31, 2019

Will protests herald a new era in Iraqi politics?

By Dara Salam

The defining feature of the protests in Baghdad which started on October 1 and spread to other cities in southern Iraq is that they were neither led nor called for by a religious authority (also known as the marja’iya) or another leader. When the first wave of protests began in multiple cities, the protesters’ message […]

Corruption
Iraq
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