Turmoil in the Middle East and north Africa directly affects Europeans. Yet their influence in the region has never been weaker. This project maps Europe’s role across the Middle East and north Africa, making the case that Europeans can do more to leverage their influence in pursuit of core interests. [...] This project maps Europe’s influence across the Middle East and north Africa, making the case that it should take on a greater role to protect its core interests. Some European officials will likely argue that the EU and its member states have done enough to address the challenges of migration and terrorism, given the bloc’s structural deficits. Yet this would be to underestimate Europeans’ potential influence in the region and the risks that a largely hands-off approach poses.
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2019-12-01
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2019-11-25
[...] China has signed a contract with Iraq to develop and complete 80 oil wells in the giant Majnoon Basra oil field at $54 million and another contract to drill 43 oil wells at $255 million to increase oil production rates to 400,000 barrels per day. It has signed a contract of $1.39 billion for housing, education and medical care for projects in Najaf, Karbalaa and Basra. The trade volume between Iraq and China surpassed $30 billion in 2017. China imports $20 billions of crude oil from Iraq every year, with a 10% increase in trade, rising every year.
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2019-11-04
Israel is bracing itself for war with Iranian proxies, as Tehran escalates its provocations. But what will the United States do if conflict comes?. By Michael Oren (Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States)
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2019-11-04
President Donald J. Trump has made U.S. engagement in the IndoPacific region a top priority of his Administration. In November 2017 in Vietnam, he outlined a vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific in which all countries prosper side by side as sovereign, independent states. That vision, shared with billions of people in more than 35 countries and economies, is based on values that have underpinned peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific for generations. Free, fair, and reciprocal trade, open investment environments, good governance, and freedom of the seas are goals shared by all who wish to prosper in a free and open future. This report describes how the United States is working with allies and partners to implement our shared vision: ...
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2019-11-01
With expanding competitors and severe domestic challenges, the time has come for Saudi Arabia to publicly engage Israel in order to confront shared opponents and protect mutual interests. ...
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2019-10-19
The following document pertaining to the formation of “Greater Israel” constitutes the cornerstone of powerful Zionist factions within the current Netanyahu government, the Likud party, as well as within the Israeli military and intelligence establishment. ...
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2019-10-06
Drip by drip, seeping out like the melting glaciers, are facts about the secret war for hearts and minds in the social media age. Every nation that can is doing it, and lying about it.
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2019-10-01
Despite significant limits on acceptable speech in Iran, national and elite debates can be vigorous. They often include voices from across the political spectrum of opinions permitted by the regime. Domestic debates on key issues play a critical role in framing, molding, and selling foreign and security policies. However, in the United States, the nuances of these debates are often lost in a busy news cycle and drowned out by the regime's bombastic rhetoric, which has come to define Iran's image over the past four decades. This October 2019 Perspective details how Iran's domestic debates affect key foreign policy and national security issues, including the country's posture on the international stage and vis-à-vis the United States. Understanding areas of both consensus and division among Iran's elite is critical to developing a realistic policy toward Iran, particularly during this time of growing tension with the United States. Areas of consensus among Iranian elites indicate regime redlines; disagreements among regime elites could offer opportunities in future negotiations involving Iran, the United States, and other members of the international community. Based on Iran's internal divisions, the areas that appear most conducive for compromise include the technical details of Iran's missile program, Iran's regional activities (particularly in countries deemed less essential to national security, such as Yemen), and increased transparency in the Iranian economy.
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2019-10-01
The Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) has been conducting indepth surveys of Iranian public opinion on nuclear policy, regional security, economics, domestic politics, and other topics since the summer of 2014. Each survey includes a combination of trend-line questions, some going as far back as 2006, and new questions written to assess and inform current policy debates. This report covers findings from three surveys fielded in May, August, and early October 2019 to evaluate how the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign is affecting public opinion in Iran. The United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, and began re-imposing sanctions on Iran that the Obama administration had lifted under the terms of the 2015 agreement it had negotiated with Iran, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. In the fall of 2018, it blacklisted hundreds of Iranian entities and threatened to impose secondary sanctions on anyone who did business with them. In spring of 2019, it tried to prevent Iran from getting any revenue from oil sales, its main export, by ending exemptions for key customers. In the summer of 2019, it tightened constraints on Iran’s access to the international financial system, including channels that had been used to pay for medicines and other humanitarian goods that were officially exempted from earlier sanctions. It also sanctioned Iran’s foreign minister, complicating his ability to interact with U.S. officials, experts, and media figures.
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2019-10-01
The Donald Trump administration is working to push forward with a military alliance of Middle Eastern states as the international community looks to respond to a suspected Iranian attack on a Saudi oil facility.