Featured commentary & analysis


Counterterrorism Study Group

The Counterterrorism Study Group is a forum for former counterterrorism officials to review the latest threats, to understand emerging trends and future predictions, and to explore creative new proposals for improving the effectiveness of current policies and operations.


Podcast series

Listen to the latest episode of the China-MENA podcast, featuring conversations with academics, government leaders, and the policy community on China’s role in the Middle East.


Gulf Security Task Force

The Gulf Security Task Force is revisiting the question of how to best protect US interests in this sensitive, always relevant region. Our goal is to provide US decision-makers with an updated, fact-based strategy for protecting US interests in the air and maritime domain from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, and ensuring Gulf partners’ ability to assume this responsibility, with the assistance and leadership of the United States.

Content

MENASource

Aug 4, 2015

The Potential Missile Race in the Middle East

By Aaron Stein

Hours after the conclusion of the Iran nuclear deal, President Barack Obama reiterated the administration’s policy of working with the Gulf Cooperation Council to integrate the region’s disparate missile defense systems.

International Organizations Iran

In the News

Aug 2, 2015

Saab on Gulf Shared Missile Defense System

By Bilal Y. Saab

The National quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Senior Fellow for Middle East Security Bilal Y. Saab on the logistics of creating and implementing a shared missile defense system among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states: 

International Organizations Politics & Diplomacy

In the News

Jul 22, 2015

LeBaron on Saudi Arabia’s Yemen Campaign

By Richard LeBaron

The Washington Post quotes Nonresident Senior Fellow Richard LeBaron on US efforts to reassure Saudi Arabia of continued US support in the wake of a nuclear deal with Saudi arch-rival Iran:

Iran Saudi Arabia

Webcasts

Jul 21, 2015

Saudi Arabia’s Scholarship Program: Generating a “Tipping Point”?

By Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East

Please join the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East on July 21, 2015 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. for a roundtable on “Saudi Arabia’s Scholarship Program: Generating a ‘Tipping Point’?” Westerners most commonly associate the Kingdom with oil, religious conservatism, and a deeply unstable region. Our panelists will challenge such conventional perceptions by […]

Saudi Arabia

MENASource

Jul 21, 2015

ISIS Attempts to Shake the Gulf

By Mona Alami

Another suicide bombing has shaken the Gulf region, as young Saudi Abdallah Fahd Abdallah Rashid blew himself up at a checkpoint in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on July 16. Rashid conducted the bombing just after killing his uncle, a colonel with the Saudi Ministry of Interior.

International Organizations Iran

New Atlanticist

Jul 14, 2015

The Middle East Transformed by Iran Agreement? Take a Deep Breath; Here’s Why Not

By Richard LeBaron

The reactions to the nuclear agreement with Iran announced July 14 were utterly predictable. Those against the agreement yesterday are those against the agreement today. Those for it are still for it. The Obama administration will fight for its approval by Congress and the Netanyahu administration will fight against it. Republican presidential hopefuls are all […]

International Organizations Iran

In the News

Jul 7, 2015

Nordenman: Sweden Struggles to Balance Defense Sales, Rights Concerns

By Magnus Nordenman

Brent Scowcroft Center Deputy Director Magnus Nordenman writes for World Politics Review on the tensions between Sweden’s arms export business and its desire to respect human rights abroad:

Defense Industry Northern Europe

Regional Security Initiative

Jul 6, 2015

The new containment: Changing America’s approach to Middle East security

By Bilal Y. Saab

Securing the Middle East after an Iran nuclear deal is the next big challenge for both the region and the international community. The United States and its allies have engaged in tireless diplomacy with Iran over the past few years to produce an agreement that would limit Tehran’s nuclear program for the next decade and […]

Middle East Security & Defense

MENASource

Jun 29, 2015

The Saudi-Houthi Stalemate in Yemen

By Nabeel Khoury

Saudi Arabia launched its war on the Houthis in March 2015; the Houthis launched their war on the rest of Yemen in September of 2014. Four months after the former and close to a year after the latter, Yemen stands on a precipice and neither has accomplished their declared goals.

Saudi Arabia Yemen
French Mirage 2000N, Oct. 13, 2013

NATOSource

Jun 26, 2015

France Fills the American Arms Void

By Owen Daniels and Robbie Gramer, Politico Europe

Through a series of recent sales worth billions, most recently a $12 billion deal with Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday, the Rafale has become the backbone of Paris’s realpolitik economic diplomacy

France North Africa

Experts