Syria has received some of its best economic news since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime at the end of 2024: the United States has begun the process of removing the country from its list of state ...

President Donald Trump has consistently shown a preference for unpredictability over a clear strategic vision. This is especially true on Iran, where from the war’s early stages the United States has ...

On 9 August, Donald Trump sat for an interview with Axios and, in the space of a few sentences, reversed the tone of the previous week. “We’re moving very quietly,” he said. Rather than ordering the ...

This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests. Wafa Ben Hassine is the MENA Policy Counsel for Access Now, an organization defending and extending the digital ...

Within 48 hours this week, Iran filled six of the most important posts in its battered military and security establishment. Read together with the biographies and mandates behind them, the ...

Jason H. Campbell is senior fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI), where he focuses on international security, geopolitics, and foreign policy. Prior to joining MEI, he was a senior policy ...

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 ...

This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests. Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and scholar, an Honorary Fellow at the National University ...

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 ...

In November 2025, the United States sought and obtained approval for a United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR 2803) endorsing the formation of a Board of Peace (BoP) and International ...

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 ...

In his second term in office, President Donald Trump faces a Middle East undergoing multifaceted upheaval and an Islamic Republic of Iran currently in its weakest and most isolated position since the ...