This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests. Anne-Linda Amira Augustin works as a political advisor in the Foreign Representation of the Southern ...

Talmiz Ahmad joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1974. Early in his career, he was posted in a number of West Asian countries such as Kuwait, Iraq and Yemen and later, between 1987-90, he was Consul ...

A conversation about the architecture of Iran’s repression — and the human cost of surviving it.

The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the United States and Iran may have ended one of the most consequential Middle Eastern crises in decades, but it has not resolved the strategic ...

Alex Vatanka is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute. He specializes in Middle Eastern regional security affairs with a particular focus on Iran. He was formerly a Senior Analyst at Jane’s ...

Brian Katulis is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, specializing in US foreign policy and national security. He authors the column “Making Sense: A Regular Take on US Foreign Policy.” ...

There is a new and little noticed geostrategic alliance on the rise. India, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have had surface-level, transactional relations for a long time. However, last ...

The global response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has focused new attention on friction between the United States and its traditional partners in the Gulf and reinforced skepticism regarding the ...

The final days of 2025 marked a turning point in the Middle East, as competition between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Yemen spilled out into the open. Tensions between the two ...

This is the third in a series of articles examining and rebutting the shu al-badīl? (“What’s the alternative?”) argument in the run-up to this year’s presidential elections, when Bashar al-Assad, ...

After 40 years, Syria once again has dual military rule, where the president and his brother are the highest authorities. In the early 1980s, Rifaat al-Assad, the brother of Hafez al-Assad, was the ...

On June 14, 2026, the United States and Iran agreed on terms to end the war that started on February 28, 2026, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. MEI experts react to the deal and what it means for the ...