Middle East

US missile defense can put a stop to the Middle East arms race

By Alex Elnagdy

Coupling missile-defense assistance with missile and bomb reductions can help the US break free of its short-sighted Middle East policies of the past.

Arab Barometer and Perceptions of China in MENA

By Atlantic Council

Michael Robbins joins us to discuss the region's perception of China based on the Arab Barometer's surveys conducted in MENA, and the different perspectives of the general public versus the elite—as the latter tends to be more favorable toward Beijing.

Ex-empires Iran and Russia forge new bonds as both blame their woes on the West

By Barbara Slavin

From a societal level, Russia and Iran would seem to have little in common. However, the West, Russian and Iranian rulers jointly believe, want to overthrow their regimes, and don’t care if the alternative is chaos.

AC Selects: Addressing Jordan and Egypt’s economic challenges and China’s unprecedented third term presidency

Last week, Jordan’s Minister of Finance, Mohamad Al-Ississ and Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Hala H. Elsaid sat down with the EmpowerME initiative to discuss challenges and potential areas of growth for their economic and financial sectors. The GeoEconomics Center and Global China hub hosted two panels of experts to examine the 20th […]

The Freedom and Prosperity Indexes: How nations create prosperity that lasts

By Dan Negrea, Matthew Kroenig

The inaugural Freedom and Prosperity Indexes show that democracies do indeed deliver. It’s time to reset the terms of the debate by letting the data do the talking. And the indexes have a lot to tell us. They reveal the most effective ways for governments to invest in their most important resource: their people.

Italy recently elected a far-right leader. Here’s how the Arab world reacted to the news.

By Karim Mezran, Nour Dabboussi

Giorgia Meloni’s government should carefully consider how it handles its nationalistic discourse to avoid any Islamophobic controversies that could ultimately spark a blowback of condemnations from its allies in the Arab world.

State of the Order: Assessing September 2022

The State of the Order breaks down the month's most important events impacting the democratic world order.