March, 2023

• 25 March

  20 Years On: The Avoidable, Anguishing, and Awful 2003 Iraq War

  

  Next Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In an attempt to make sense of the past two decades of American military operations in Iraq, we must begin by recognizing our military engagement in Iraq isn’t at the two-decade mark. With only one brief …

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• 25 March

  Daniel DePetris: Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow isn’t what it seems.

  

  Chinese President Xi Jinping traveled to Russia this week for a three-day visit at a particularly critical point in the 13 month-old war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin was indicted by the International Criminal Court several days earlier for war crimes, the first time the high court has charged …

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• 25 March

  The Case for a Restrained Republican Foreign Policy

  

  Conservatives Can’t Go Back to Ignoring the Limits of American Power As the U.S. Republican presidential primary heats up, so too will the debate about the future of conservative American foreign policy. Although most of the declared and likely candidates will probably attempt to assume the mantle of “America first,” …

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• 25 March

  Serbia is negotiating gas from Azerbaijan

  

  Serbia is negotiating with partners from Azerbaijan on the amount and prices of gas that will be received through the Serbia-Bulgaria gas interconnection, the Ministry of Mining and Energy confirmed for Demostat . They state that Serbia could receive that gas as early as next year. They add that Serbia …

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• 25 March

  Assad comeback epitomizes Gulf states’ world power ambitions

  

  Visits to Oman and the UAE in recent weeks mark another step in the Syrian president’s rehabilitation within the region, and the weakening of Western influence. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received red carpet treatment on his second official visit to Abu Dhabi on March 19, a week after he had …

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• 25 March

  Second attack on US military in Syria following Pentagon’s airstrikes

  

  The US military said it struck Iranian-affiliated targets in eastern Syria in response to an earlier drone attack. The US military sustained a rocket attack on a compound in Syria on Friday following the airstrikes that Washington launched on Thursday in the war-ravaged country. The US strikes came in response …

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• 25 March

  Russia’s occupation strategy — the biggest long-term threat to Ukraine’s stability

  

  Russia has wielded ethnicity as a weapon repeatedly in its history. The authorities have deliberately employed unlawful occupations, annexations, deportations, filtration, and ethnic dilution through an influx of Russian settlers to control and reshape the Eurasian map in favor of Russian expansionism. Illustratively, the legacy of the Soviet occupation, deportations, …

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• 25 March

  How Tehran views the Iranian-Saudi agreement

  

  Two weeks ago, on March 10, Iran said it would restore diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia after a seven-year rupture as part of a deal brokered by China. The agreement, reached in Beijing, is the result of almost a year and a half of mostly quiet talks between Iran and …

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• 25 March

  Economic Diversification, Energy Transition, and the Labor Market in Iraq and the Gulf

  

  As part of a continued collaboration with the Middle East Peace and Security Forum held in Iraqi Kurdistan at the American University of Kurdistan, the Middle East Institute and the Iraq Policy Group held a workshop on Nov. 15, 2022 focusing on challenges of economic diversification, energy transition, and impacts …

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• 25 March

  Paris failed. Washington must lead in breaking the mafia-militia’s chokehold on Lebanon

  

  In response to Lebanon’s seemingly imminent transition into a failed state, this article introduces a new framework to explain the country’s protracted crisis. In turn, we unpack what the past four years of international responses to Lebanon got wrong and make the case for a new assertive approach for Washington …

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