Middle East & North Africa

Syrian refugees pick up cotton from a field in the village of Bukulmez on the Turkish-Syrian border, in Hatay province, November 3, 2012. Despite the conflict on the Syrian side of the border, cotton harvest is still underway in Turkey's southern border province of Hatay. During early October, the Turkish military launched a retaliatory strike on Syria after a mortar bomb fired from Syrian soil landed in the countryside in Hatay. Some Syrian refugees work at cotton fields together with Turkish villagers in the border region as cottons pickers. Picture taken November 3, 2012. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: AGRICULTURE POLITICS) - GM1E8B509FD01

How to leverage trade concessions to improve refugee self-reliance and host community resilience

Sunday, December 15, 2019

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Donald Tusk, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of Egypt and Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Arab League's secretary general, attend a news conference during a summit between Arab league and European Union member states, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, February 25, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany - RC1A493D83D0

Mapping European leverage in the MENA region: Egypt

Adel Abdel Ghafar

December, 2019

Spanish civil guards are seen during an operation in which they arrested two people accused of connections with Islamic militants, in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, January 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jesus Moron - RC1F0ED06740

Mapping European Leverage in the MENA region: Morocco

Yasmina Abouzzohour

December 2019

Kurdish fighters gesture while carrying their parties' flags in Tel Abyad of Raqqa governorate after they said they took control of the area June 15, 2015. Syrian Kurdish-led forces said they had captured a town at the Turkish border from Islamic State on Monday, driving it away from the frontier in an advance backed by U.S.-led air strikes that has thrust deep into the jihadists' Syria stronghold. The capture of Tel Abyad by the Kurdish YPG and smaller Syrian rebel groups means the Syrian Kurds effectively control some 400 km (250 miles) of the Syrian-Turkish border that has been a conduit for foreign fighters joining Islamic State. Picture taken June 15, 2015. REUTERS/Rodi Said TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - GF10000129146

ISIS and the false dawn of Kurdish statehood

Ömer Taşpınar

Friday, December 13, 2019

An empty speaker's lectern is seen in the rain outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, October 10, 2013. U.S. House of Representatives Republicans are weighing a short-term debt limit increase with no added policy changes, such as deficit-reduction requirements, according to a source with knowledge of the discussions. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - GM1E9AA1RTL01

An up-close look at what impeachment proceedings can mean for foreign policy

Friday, December 13, 2019

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh speaks during a cabinet meeting of the new Palestinian government, in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank April 15, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman - RC18BBEC7170

From confusion to clarity: Three pillars for revitalizing the Palestinian national movement

Thursday, December 12, 2019

A general view of Abadan oil refinery in southwest Iran, is pictured from Iraqi side of Shatt al-Arab in Al-Faw south of Basra, Iraq September 21, 2019. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani - RC156ACB6840

The shifting energy landscape and the Gulf economies’ diversification challenge

Samantha Gross and Adel Abdel Ghafar

December 2019

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attend a meeting in Damascus, Syria January 7, 2020. Picture taken January 7, 2020. Sputnik/Aleksey Nikolskyi/Kremlin via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.

Dreams of Westphalia: Can a Grand Bargain Solve the Middle East’s Problems?

Suzanne Maloney

Foreign Affairs Tuesday, December 10, 2019

The main gate at Naval Air Station Pensacola is seen on Navy Boulevard in Pensacola, Florida, U.S. March 16, 2016. Picture taken March 16, 2016. U.S. Navy/Patrick Nichols/Handout via REUTERS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. - RC2RPD9BC4N8

The Pensacola attack by a Saudi pilot: Implications for US-Saudi ties

Daniel L. Byman and Tamara Cofman Wittes

Friday, December 6, 2019

A tractor cleans debris outside a damaged building in Mezzah, Damascus, Syria November 12, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki - RC2J9D9H43XW

What can we learn from the escalating Israeli raids in Syria?

Eyal Tsir Cohen and Kevin Huggard

Friday, December 6, 2019