Middle East Programs Research & Reports

Kurdistan’s share of the 2024 Iraqi budget: More than meets the eye

By Ahmed Tabaqchali

How to account for the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan has complicated budgeting in Baghdad in the past. The latest budget cycle may have addressed some of these problems—and may help reset Baghdad-Erbil relations.

An energy and sustainability road map for the Middle East

By Ariel Ezrahi

The MENA region is facing a severe crisis due to climate change. Here’s how the US can shape a new model of climate diplomacy.

Iraq’s 2024 budget: Not what it appears when it first meets the eye

By Ahmed Tabaqchali

Iraq’s budget update seems straightforward but holds hidden complexities. A closer look uncovers discrepancies between appearances and realities, offering insights into Iraq’s fiscal strategy and the structural challenges shaping its economic future.

The economic and social costs of the war in Gaza

By Perrihan Al-Riffai

After a year of war, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and neighboring countries need a permanent ceasefire. But with development gains erased, billions of dollars in infrastructure damaged, and skyrocketing unemployment, the Middle East also urgently needs a solid reconstruction plan.

A bipartisan Iran strategy for the next US administration—and the next two decades

As tensions spike in the Middle East, how should the next US president approach Iran and its network of proxies including Hezbollah and Hamas? With a strategy that can be maintained for decades, by administrations of either party. A bipartisan, expert working group lays out the details.

China’s Middle East policy shift from “hedging” to “wedging”

By Jonathan Fulton, Michael Schuman

Beijing’s diplomacy on the Gaza crisis has been unusually active, and gradually, the intentions behind China’s intervention have become clear. Beijing’s response demonstrates a changing approach to the region, one intended to leverage Beijing’s influence to upset American policy and promote its own vision for the international order.

After 2011, the United States stayed on the sidelines—to Libya’s detriment

By Ben Fishman

When reflecting over the last decade of the US policy, especially in the Trump and Biden administrations, three consistent trends emerge: insufficient support for the UN political process to restore legitimacy to Libya’s political; leadership, repeated appeals to eastern warlord and head of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar to participate in a political process; and most consequentially for the United States, a seeming lack of attention to Russia’s increased presence in Libya.

Libya is the crucial hub for Moscow’s activities in Africa

By Chiara Lovotti, Alissa Pavia

Over the past decade, Russia’s involvement in Libya is evidence of its realization that it could transition from a marginal power to a significant competitor in the country, and thus in the broader Middle East and North Africa.

After anti-migration efforts shrank its influence, Rome needs a new Libya policy

By Karim Mezran, Aldo Liga

It has been more than thirteen years since the outbreak of the 2011 Libyan revolution and the moment when Italy reluctantly supported the NATO-led intervention that imposed a no-fly zone over Libya purportedly to protect the population from Muammar Gaddafi’s retaliation.

Benghazi is a major stumbling block for national reconciliation efforts

By Mary Fitzgerald

In May 2014 Libyan General Khalifa Haftar launched a then-unauthorized military operation from Benghazi, Libya’s second city. The operation, which Haftar named Karama, or Dignity, was centered on but not limited to Benghazi; its declared aim was to eradicate what Haftar and his associates described as terrorism. However, it prompted a swell of armed opposition from those who suspected it was a pretext for the septuagenarian general’s ambition to rule Libya.