Middle East

Broadcasting brutal murder videos, enslaving religious minorities, training and deploying child soldiers, carrying out suicide bombings at crowded intersections – these are just some of […] More

Our basic understanding of the Islamic State’s ambitions, and its justifications of those ambitions, remains muddled. “Remaining and expanding” and “a caliphate on the Prophet […] More

Is ISIS Islamic?  Probably not.  Is it Islamist?  Definitely.  An Islamist is one who believes in a version of Islam which would impose a politicized […] More

Vice President Joe Biden touched down in Iraq on Thursday for a surprise visit to the country as it faces a deepening political crisis that […] More

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was formed shortly after the 1979 revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Shah Reza Pahlavi. According to the Iranian Constitution, […] More

On April 15, Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, traveled to Moscow for talks with Russian political and military officials regarding the […] More

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is an ideological military force that, since its creation, has been involved in virtually every facet of Iranian politics, […] More

The Saudis and the Houthis are not talking. Peace talks to end the conflict in Yemen were set to begin on Monday in Kuwait, but […] More

Peace talks between the Saudi Arabians – who support the internationally recognized government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in Yemen – and the Houthis […] More

Peace talks are stalled and a ceasefire between the Saudis and the Houthis in Yemen is not holding. This is exactly what terrorist groups, like […] More

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit on Thursday comes at a pivotal time as conflicts roil the region, and the United States faces an increasingly […] More

More than 200 additional U.S. troops will be deployed to Iraq to help support and intensify the fight against ISIS, a move retired four-star General […] More

As Turkey continues to face a deteriorating security environment, The Cipher Brief sat down with Aykan Erdemir, a former member of the Turkish parliament and […] More

In light of the ongoing military coup attempt in Istanbul, here is The Cipher Brief’s recent feature explaining the myriad problems facing Turkey.  We will […] More

In the late 1970s, Turkey experienced a convulsion of political violence between leftist and rightist factions that killed almost five thousand people by the time […] More

The recent wave of violence in Turkey can be grouped into three categories. The first is the operations led by Turkish security forces in parts […] More

With Iraq’s political crisis worsening as chaos erupted in parliament on Wednesday over Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi plan to reshuffle his cabinet and combat corruption, […] More

President Barack Obama is meeting today with his National Security Council at CIA headquarters to discuss efforts to combat the Islamic State (also known as […] More