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

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets US President Donald J. Trump and Jared Kushner.

New Atlanticist

Oct 23, 2018

Oil, arms, and counterterrorism: A look at Saudi options and how far the Kingdom may go

By Nabeel Khoury

Given the wide opprobrium in the US Congress, media, and private sector, it is yet to be seen whether the West, particularly the United States, will punish Saudi Arabia with sanctions.

Economic Sanctions International Norms

In the News

Oct 23, 2018

Greenwald Joins CNBC to Discuss US-Saudi Relations

By Michael Greenwald

Read the full article here.

Saudi Arabia

In the News

Oct 22, 2018

Cohen in Forbes: U.S.-Saudi Relations Stress Tested By Khashoggi Crisis

By Ariel Cohen

Read the full article here.

Saudi Arabia

MENASource

Oct 22, 2018

The Khashoggi reset

By Frederic C. Hof

The murder of Jamal Khashoggi—a resident of the United States and a citizen of a Kingdom that owed him protection—highlights the purely transactional nature of the relationship between Riyadh and Washington.

Saudi Arabia

In the News

Oct 22, 2018

Kroenig Quoted in Minneapolis Star Tribune on Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia

By Matthew Kroenig

Read the full article here.

Saudi Arabia

IranSource

Oct 22, 2018

Dealing With Saudi Arabia Requires Lessons From Iran’s Global Assassination Campaign

By Gissou Nia

Gruesome details of the possible premeditated killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi state actors are gradually being revealed. This has invited inevitable comparisons between the brutality of Saudi Arabia to its regional rival, Iran. While the comparisons have prompted a fair number of social media snipes and tu quoque arguments, the parallels here […]

Iran Saudi Arabia

In the News

Oct 21, 2018

Bryza Quoted in Express on Saudi Crown Prince

By Matthew Bryza

Read the full article here.

Saudi Arabia

In the News

Oct 20, 2018

Slavin Quoted in USA Today on MBS

By Barbara Slavin

Read the full article here.

Saudi Arabia

Inflection Points

Oct 20, 2018

How Turkey gains from the grisly drama over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

By Frederick Kempe

The most worrisome aspect of the Khashoggi affair and its aftermath, says one well-informed Western diplomat in Turkey, is the glimpse it provides into an unraveling world order constructed by the U.S. and its allies, and the jungle that appears to be growing in its place.

International Norms Saudi Arabia

MENASource

Oct 19, 2018

Murder in Istanbul and the Turkish Saudi rivalry

By Aaron Stein

On October 2, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi national living in self-exile in the United States, walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. That was the last time he was seen alive.

Saudi Arabia Turkey

Experts