Middle East

Fighting the Islamic State in Syria

By Frederic C. Hof

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has shared with the world his deep concern over publicly stated US intentions to attack Islamic State positions in Syria “without interaction with the Syrian government.”

The Dual Threats to Western Values

By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Wall Street Journal

The abhorrent beheading of two American journalists and a British aid worker shocked the world. So did the tragic downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.

Indirect Repression: When Reason is Eliminated

By Amr Hamzawy

The Egyptian regime is currently ruling the country via strategies of increased repression, which is exercised both directly and indirectly. This is seen in its attempts to improve the economic and social conditions in the country, and in its populist rhetoric based on the myth of the “saving hero,” and the reinstatement of autocracy as […]

Are We Giving ISIS Too Much Credit?

Ramzy Mardini, nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, recently wrote in The Washington Post about the possibility of the Obama administration’s overestimation of the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). It’s an interesting question.

We Can’t Destroy ISIS Without Destroying Bashar al Assad First

By Frederic C. Hof

On Wednesday evening, President Obama took 14 minutes to articulate, in clear and persuasive language, a counter-terrorism strategy “to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.”

Egypt’s Role in Libya: Lessons Learned from Iraq

By Nader Bakkar

Taking an in-depth look at what role Egypt can play in the current crisis in Libya reveals that a full military intervention, a limited military incursion, or a ‘surgical operation,’ are wrought with negative repercussions. But what of a collective Arab or international military intervention?  What of an indirect intervention to provide intelligence or logistical assistance […]

The Trap of Friendly Fire

By Khaled Dawoud

The recent release of two Muslim Brotherhood figures from prison in Egypt, the first since the army’s removal of former President, Mohamed Morsi, fourteen months ago, increased speculation that secret reconciliation talks were taking place between the two sides. While any negotiations were firmly denied in official statements by the government and the Muslim Brotherhood, […]

Syria: The Effect of Airstrikes on Aid

By Matthew Timmerman

The Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham’s (ISIS, ISIL, or the Islamic State) cavalier brutality draws headlines in the media, but its obstruction of aid in several Syrian governorates proves that it possesses more subtle means of inflicting cruelty.