Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative Commentary & Analysis

The Enemy of My Enemy: An Uneasy Coalition and the Threat of ISIS

By The Atlantic Council

The alarming expansion of the jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has prompted regional and international powerbrokers with vested security and economic interests in the broader Middle East to reassess their regional strategies. The United States and key Gulf states on one side, and Iran and Syria on the other, share […]

The Collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks: A Review by Amb. Michael Oren

“Israel cannot return to 1967 lines,” Ambassador-in-Residence Michael Oren cautioned on Thursday. “From a security standpoint, it’s very problematic. ’67 borders is the Western Wall, it’s central Jerusalem.”

The Gulf Rising: Defense Industrialization in Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Dramatic changes in the world of defense, coupled with increasing political, financial, and fiscal pressures in the transatlantic community, have forced some of the most advanced US industrial allies and partners to make tough choices regarding their national defense programs, leaving them either more dependent on the United States or with capability shortages. Facing even […]

Arms and Influence in the Gulf

By Bilal Y. Saab

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi Get to Work Since the formation of the modern Arab state system in the mid-twentieth century, no Arab country has succeeded in building and sustaining an indigenous national defense industry. Egypt tried hard, but ultimately failed because it lacked the requisite financial and human capital. Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq came closest, […]

Working Group on a New US Defense Strategy and Posture in the Gulf

For more than four decades, the United States has had a robust web of partnerships with the states comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This system has helped to achieve common strategic goals, including securing the free and constant flow of oil from the region to the world at large; preventing the rise of a […]

Working Group on Defense Industrialization in Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Saudi Arabia, which spends more on defense than any other nation in the Middle East (up to 10 per cent of its GDP, which amounts to $21 billion), is the world’s seventh biggest spender in military terms. The United Arab Emirates, the world’s fourth largest arms importer, fields an increasingly capable military, is a regional leader […]

A Mideast Watershed: The End of US Domination?

A 35-Year Pax Americana is waning, says former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren The recent years’ decline of US power and assertiveness in the Middle East has created a power vacuum there that may end 35 years of American pre-eminence in the region, said Michael Oren, Israeli historian and former ambassador to the United States. “While […]