Trump Mideast Trip Marks a Shift from Obama
President Donald Trump heads to The Vatican and Brussels on Wednesday, after wrapping up a trip to the Middle East, which started in Saudi Arabia […] More
Middle East
The Struggle Continues in Iran
Hassan Rouhani’s decisive victory in the Iranian presidential elections held last week reveals that after 38 years, Iranians are still struggling to resolve the conflicts […] More
True Defeat of ISIS Seems Unlikely in the Short Term
The Cipher Brief’s Bennett Seftel sat down with Daniel Byman, Senior Fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution to discuss […] More
Could Iran’s Elections Indicate a New Future?
Iranian voters sent a strong message to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, decisively electing incumbent President Hassan Rouhani to a second term in office. The […] More
Election Exposed Deep Polarization Within Iran
The Cipher Brief’s Bennett Seftel sat down with Suzanne Maloney, Deputy Director of the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, to discuss how the […] More
Trump Should Meet with Sisi in Saudi Arabia
U.S. President Donald Trump arrives in Saudi Arabia Saturday with a packed agenda. He will conclude a $109.7 billion arms agreement with Riyadh, discuss opportunities […] More
Yemen Quagmire Casts a Shadow Over Trump Trip to Saudi Arabia
President Donald Trump’s first trip abroad to Saudi Arabia is aimed at re-ordering America’s approach to the Middle East and reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s centrality to […] More
Securing Mosul Post-ISIS
It is likely that Iraqi security forces and international partners will soon liberate Mosul from ISIS’ three-year hold. However, without proper governance over the city, […] More
Iranian Elections Unpredictable and Exciting
Friday’s presidential election in Iran marks a pivotal moment for the Islamic Republic. Although ultimate power in the country remains in the hands of Supreme […] More
U.S. Special Operations Forces’ Changing Mission in the Middle East
Despite former President Barack Obama’s efforts to cut U.S. military commitments in the Middle East, events quickly drew his Administration back into the region. Civil […] More
Don’t Overcommit U.S. Special Operations Forces
U.S. special operations forces are widely considered to be some of the most highly trained and effective military units in the world and, as a […] More
SOF’s Evolving Role: Warfare “By, With, and Through” Local Forces
The role of U.S. special operations forces (SOF) in the Middle East has expanded steadily since the inception of the counter-ISIS campaign in 2014. In […] More
Don’t Expect Popping Champagne Corks at Trump-Abbas Meeting
President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, traveled to the White House on Wednesday for his first meeting with President Donald Trump. In brief comments […] More
Trump Needs More Than 100 Days on Syria
When Yitzhak Rabin met with President Gerald Ford on his first visit to Washington as Israel’s Prime Minister in 1974, he sought to cash in […] More
The Kurds Can Fight: Now They Need to Govern
Iraqi Kurdistan has been relatively stable in an otherwise troubled region. Unhappy with Iraq as their home, Kurds have fought successive Iraqi regimes since being […] More
Famine, Houthis, and Peace Talks Confront Yemen
The Yemen peace process has been on life support since late December, even though the nation is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. G-7 […] More
India and Israel Look to Expand Cooperation
A quarter of a century after the normalization of relations between India and Israel, the strength of Indo-Israeli ties can be measured by the continuing […] More
Does Moderate Political Islam Exist?
The term “political Islam” has become commonplace after the Arab uprisings of 2011, during which Islamist groups rose to political prominence across the Middle East […] More