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

Mar 13, 2015

US Policy in Yemen: Creating Leverage

By Nabeel Khoury

In case there were still any doubts about Iran’s growing influence in Yemen, Tehran put that issue to rest with a hostage rescue operation last week, a pledge to provide the Houthis with a year’s worth of oil and electricity, and newly established daily commercial flights between Tehran and Sana’a.

Yemen
Gen. Martin Dempsey and Gen. Pierre de Villiers aboard the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, March 8, 2015

NATOSource

Mar 9, 2015

For the First Time, France Puts Aircraft Carrier Charles de Gaulle Under US Command

By Missy Ryan, Washington Post

When Gen. Martin Dempsey’s plane touched down Sunday on the deck of this ship, he became the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in recent history — perhaps ever — to set foot on a French aircraft carrier, a sign of the two nations’ increasing operational unity in the campaign against the Islamic […]

France Iraq

In the News

Mar 6, 2015

Saab on the Military Capacity of UAE

By Bilal Saab

Bloomberg quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Resident Senior Fellow for Middle East Security Bilal Y. Saab on the military capacity of the United Arab Emirates and what it means for the fight against ISIS:

The Gulf

Defense Industrialist

Feb 26, 2015

The Ukrainian-Emirati Connection

By James Hasik

Sharply different histories of two armaments industries have led to a confluence of political and commercial opportunity.   No doubt, as Derek Chollet wrote Tuesday on Defense One, “Ukraine’s Military Needs More Than Just Arms”. Training and organizational reform will be essential for recovering its fighting efficiency. But as we should remind Washington and Paris and Berlin, […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

In the News

Feb 25, 2015

Khan on the Deteriorating Economic Situation in Yemen

By Mohsin Khan

Bloomberg quotes Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Mohsin Khan on how the deteriorating economic situation in Yemen could lead to an even worse political crisis:

Yemen

MENASource

Feb 13, 2015

Anti-Houthi Protests in Yemen

By Victoria Heckenlaible

Thousands of men, women, and children flooded the streets this week in Sana’a and across Yemen protesting the Houthi takeover. The demonstrations came on the fourth anniversary of protests that forced former President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power.

Yemen

MENASource

Feb 10, 2015

Lessons for Sinai from Yemen

By Nervana Mahmoud

Following the recent major attacks by militants that killed at least twenty-seven people, mostly soldiers, in Sinai, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made two important decisions. He has established a unified military command east of the Suez Canal to fight radical groups in the Sinai Peninsula. He has also pledged $1.3 billion to develop the […]

North Africa Yemen

MENASource

Feb 9, 2015

Death of Saudi King Ends Hope for Egypt-Qatar Rapprochement

By Khaled Dawoud

Chances for reconciliation between Egypt and Qatar have faded quickly amid renewed charges in Cairo that the oil-rich Gulf state is back to its regular policy of supporting the currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group. Egypt has gone so far as to accuse Qatar of supporting the recent terrorist attacks against the army in Sinai.

North Africa Saudi Arabia

MENASource

Feb 9, 2015

Yemen: The Enemy of my Enemy is Al-Qaeda

By Nadwa Al-Dawsari

Last Sunday, armed men from Bani Dhabian, a prominent tribe from the northern Sana’a province set up a camp near the border Marib, an oil rich province in central Yemen. It was the third rallying point that local tribes had established in the province since last September to curb the advance of Houthis into their […]

Yemen

MENASource

Jan 29, 2015

A New Hezbollah in Yemen?

By Nabeel Khoury

Young, handsome and charismatic, Abdel Malek al-Houthi has taken Yemen and the world by surprise. Leader of a ten-year insurgency against the central government in Sana’a, Abdel Malek has finally arrived, forcing the resignation of President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi as Houthi fighters surrounded his house, seemingly to show displeasure with his failure to fully comply […]

Yemen

Experts