Middle East

CIPHER SNAPSHOT: Turkey is a critical country for U.S. interests. Recent developments in Turkey’s domestic politics, economic outlook, and foreign policy have significant ramifications for […] More

The Cipher Brief spoke with Mr. Khush Chosky, Vice President for Turkey and Middle East Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to get his thoughts […] More

The Cipher Brief spoke with Mr. Sinan Ulgen, founder and managing partner of Istanbul Economics and a visiting  scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, to […] More

There is a profound change in regional geopolitics in the Middle East after the Arab Spring. The societal demands for change in Arab countries led […] More

On the night of September 11, 2012, four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, were killed in terrorist attacks at U.S. facilities in Benghazi, […] More

The Cipher Brief spoke with Kevin Hulbert, a former senior intelligence officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, to get his thoughts on embassy security […] More

The State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, which grew out of the Inman Report recommendations, was never meant to be a war zone security force.  But […] More

It was just after lunchtime on April 18, 1983, when a suicide bomber attacked the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.  63 people were killed and […] More

Four years after the Arab Spring, the security environment across North Africa remains dire.    “The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for […] More

After having been idled by sit-ins for four years, Tunisia’s state-owned phosphate mines are open again. Why they closed was just one example of a […] More

The Cipher Brief sat down with Haim Malka, the Deputy Director of and Senior Fellow for the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic […] More

  So what if Iran isn’t planning to build an actual nuclear weapon?  Would that affect your take on the nuclear deal?  I mean it. […] More

Saudi Arabia is showing a bolder side. The Kingdom has taken a new direction, undergoing changes in dynastic succession, foreign policy, and economic strategy. “The […] More

It is difficult to imagine the turmoil that the House of Saud must have been enduring since the price of oil began its precipitous and […] More

Saudi Arabia, blessed with political stability and deep pockets, presents one of the most attractive business and investment environments in the vast region between central […] More

In the wake of the nuclear agreement with Iran, US-Saudi relations appeared on the rocks. But when it comes to defense spending, business has rarely […] More

As part of the Iran deal, international sanctions prohibiting Iran from purchasing and selling conventional arms and ballistic missile systems will be lifted in the […] More

Despite all the debate on the merits of the Iran nuclear deal, one thing is abundantly clear: the Middle East is changing in ways that […] More