Middle Orient

Summary:As the war continues, deterioration at the level of governance, security, and public order will likely be deepened by the absence of a political horizon, diplomatic process, or future prospects. Initial reactions to Hamas’s October 7 bloody attack on Israelis and Israel’s declaration of war focused on the short term: …

As Israel speaks openly about the ethnic cleansing of Gaza’s Palestinians, Western countries are nowhere to be seen or heard. Israel has made great efforts over the decades to redefine its ethnic cleansing of the Arab population of Palestine in 1948 as being a consequence of the Arabs’ voluntary departure …

Hamas’s surprise attack on October 7 upended three major developments that had been taking place in the Middle East. Hamas’s surprise attack against Israeli towns around Gaza on October 7 upended several dynamics that had increasingly defined regional politics in recent years. The first and most obvious one was the …

Plenty of factors could expand the conflict in Gaza, which is why a ceasefire is now needed to avoid the worst. Hamas’s operational success on October 7 has placed Iran, and with it Hezbollah, between a rock and a hard place as they try to calibrate their response to the …

At its height half a decade ago, the Islamic State was among the most feared armed organizations in the world. The infamously brutal group had at one point captured and established governance of more than a third of Iraq and large swaths of Syria. But that shocking, sudden rise to …

Is Russia’s lucky streak in Syria and Libya finally running out? The Kremlin has gambled big on proxy warfare in both countries, deploying thousands of private military contractors with the so-called Wagner Group to back its favorite strongmen. But after a recent run of misfortunes for Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, …

While the war in Syria has receded from the international spotlight, residents in the country’s northeast are bracing for a new wave of armed conflict. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for months threatened to launch a military invasion of the region to push back Syrian Kurdish fighters and create …

The British Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, has come under fire from members of his own party for refusing to call for a ceasefire in the Hamas-Israel war, instead pushing for a humanitarian pause in the conflict. As a result, 50 Labour councillors have quit the party. The controversy raises …

On September 19, 2001, eight days after 9/11, as the leaders of both parties were already pounding a frenzied drumbeat of war, a diverse group of concerned Americans released a warning about the long-term consequences of a military response. Among them were veteran civil rights activists, faith leaders, and public …

White House and Pentagon officials have said they will hold Iran accountable for attacks on US bases by Iranian proxies. US troops in Iraq and Syria came under a spate of new rocket and drone attacks over the weekend, as the Pentagon sent an Ohio-class nuclear-powered submarine into the region …