Center for Middle East Policy

White House at Sunset. Source: Shutterstock.

A list of specific, actionable foreign policy ideas for the next president

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan during a bilateral meeting at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Evaluating the Trump administration’s Pakistan reset

Monday, October 26, 2020

Marc and Debra Tice, parents of U.S. journalist Austin Tice, walk past a poster of their son after the news conference in Beirut, Lebanon December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Questions President Trump needs to answer before negotiating with the Assad regime over hostages

Steven Heydemann

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman transits the Suez Canal, Egypt towards the Mediterranean Sea in a photo released by the US Navy June 2, 2016. U.S. fighter jets on Friday launched strikes against Islamic State from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, the U.S. Navy said, marking the first time a U.S. aircraft carrier targeted areas in the Middle East from the Mediterranean since the Iraq War began in 2003. U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Anthony Flynn/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY

How to downsize the US presence in the Middle East

Bruce Riedel and Michael E. O’Hanlon

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

U.S. Army soldiers with the 1st platoon, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, patrol in Mainjui as local women walk by in Arghandab valley in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, May 9, 2010. U.S. forces are massing on the outskirts of Kandahar for the biggest military offensive of the nearly nine-year-old war, in the hope of turning the tide against a strengthening Taliban insurgency. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: MILITARY CONFLICT CIVIL UNREST)

America should stay in Afghanistan until an intra-Afghan deal is reached — not forever

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

REFILE - CORRECTING TYPO An Iranian woman holds a red flower as she attends a ceremony to bury remains of 150 "martyrs" from 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war in Tehran, Iran June 27, 2019. Nazanin Tabatabaee/West Asia News Agency via REUTERS. ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY

How the Iran-Iraq war will shape the region for decades to come

Friday, October 9, 2020

The body of Kuwait's late Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, who died after treatment in U.S., is carried by officials during his funeral procession, in Kuwait City, Kuwait September 30, 2020. Kuwait News Agency/Handout Via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGES WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

The post-Sabah era in Kuwait

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Sudanese protesters march in a demonstration to mark the anniversary of a transitional power-sharing deal with demands for quicker political reforms in Khartoum, Sudan August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

Normalizing Sudan-Israel relations now is a dangerous game

Payton Knopf and Jeffrey Feltman

Thursday, September 24, 2020

A Trump supporter reaches for his revolver as Black Lives Matter protesters advance to push the group away from the Justice Center in Portland, Ore., on August 22, 2020. (Photo by Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA)No Use UK. No Use Germany.

Who is a terrorist, actually?

Daniel L. Byman

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

National Counterterrorism Center Director Christopher Miller and FBI Director Christopher Wray testifiy before the House Homeland Security Committee during a hearing about 'worldwide threats to the homeland' on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 17, 2020. Chip Somodevilla/Pool via REUTERS

How serious are threats to the US homeland?

Daniel L. Byman and Seamus Hughes

Monday, September 21, 2020