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

In the News

Jun 23, 2019

William Wechsler quoted in the News of Bahrain: Security Threats Reviewed

By William Wechsler

Read More Here

The Gulf

New Atlanticist

Jun 21, 2019

Open source investigators set their sights on Saudi airstrikes in Yemen

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Bellingcat and the Global Legal Action Network are using open source information to investigate airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition on civilian targets and critical infrastructure in Yemen.

Disinformation The Gulf

In the News

Jun 21, 2019

Nabeel Khoury quoted in the Globe Post: Saudi Arabia, UAE Want a Dictator to Remain in Power in Sudan, Expert Says

By Nabeel Khoury

Read More Here

Saudi Arabia Sudan

New Atlanticist

Jun 21, 2019

Open source information as a tool in exposing authoritarian regimes

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Open source researches can steel themselves to combat disinformation fro authoritarian regimes by working with social media companies, Iyed el-Baghdadi says.

Disinformation Saudi Arabia

New Atlanticist

Jun 20, 2019

Iran’s attack on US drone escalates tensions in the Gulf

By David A. Wemer

Barbara Slavin believes the string of incidents over the last several weeks means “it is time for diplomats to meet to discuss ways of getting out of this mess.”

Drones Iran

IranSource

Jun 17, 2019

GCC dispute pushes Iran and Qatar closer but with caveats

By Giorgio Cafiero and Andreas Paraskevopoulos

Despite the recent rise in tensions between the United States and Iran, Qatar is moving closer to its controversial neighbor as a blockade of Qatar by prominent Arab countries appears to have become a permanent feature of the regional geopolitical landscape.

Iran The Gulf

In the News

Jun 14, 2019

Cornell in Bloomberg Environment: Sovereign Wealth Fund Key to Saudis’ Renewable Energy

Read the full article here

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

IranSource

Jun 10, 2019

A non-subversion pact for the Persian Gulf?

By Barbara Slavin

A major complaint of those who rejected the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is that it did nothing to curb Iran’s regional interventions and actually may have spurred them.Iran, these opponents argue, remains a theologically driven hegemon out to subvert Arab states and turn them into states too weak to threaten Tehran. Thus they reject recent proposals […]

Iran Saudi Arabia

IranSource

May 23, 2019

Saudi Arabia and Iran are adapting to perpetual conflict

By Banafsheh Keynoush

When rogue intelligence officers at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018, an official of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) voiced concern over the surge of US media onslaught on Saudi Arabia. Echoing Iran’s conspiratorial views of the United States, the IRGC official questioned if Washington was planning to undermine Riyadh.

Iran Saudi Arabia

MENASource

May 21, 2019

Kuwait’s apprehension about normalizing relations with Syria

By Theodore Karasik and Tristan Ober

With the Syrian civil war winding down, politicians and observers alike recognize that President Bashar al-Assad has managed to retain his position as Syria’s head-of-state. Some countries have moved swiftly in acknowledging the outcome of the conflict by reinstating diplomatic ties with the Assad regime and reopening embassies in Damascus. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, which, to varying degrees, opposed Assad after the civil war erupted, are two salient examples of this trend.

Middle East Syria

Experts