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Information and War: A Case Study in Gaza Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2024-03-05 Andrew Steinfeld, Dan Arbell, Nadia Bilbassy‐Charters, Jamal Nusseibeh, Gina Abercrombie‐Winstanley
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The Evolution of the Gulf: History and Theories Of a Complex Subregional System Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Ruth Hanau Santini, Paolo Wulzer
This article explores the relationship between international‐relations theories and Cold War and post‐Cold War historical dynamics in the Middle East, in particular the Gulf. It first identifies the theoretical approaches that have been applied or that have failed to be applied to the region's changing geopolitics, then delves into Cold War history and its impact on the Middle East and the Gulf by
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The Israel-Hamas War: Historical Context and International Law Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-12-07 M.T. Samuel
This essay contextualizes the 2023 Israel-Hamas war within a century-old legal history of Palestinian dispossession that has been facilitated through the violation and misuse of international law. It argues that Hamas's attacks of October 7 were not simply driven by sanguinary hatred of Jews, as some commentators have suggested. Instead, the war crimes were motivated by the Palestinians’ disillusionment
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Turkey's Nuclear Security Regime: An Assessment Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-11-29 Şebnem Udum
The 9/11 attacks prompted the development of an international nuclear security regime. States are expected to adopt legislation and institutionalize measures to ensure cooperation among stakeholders and create their own national nuclear security regimes. This article evaluates the steps taken by Turkey, a newcomer in nuclear energy. It argues that while Ankara has acted in line with its traditional
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Explaining the Decline Of Suicide Terrorism in Turkey Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-11-23 Sertif Demir, Murat Ülgül
Since the 9/11 attacks, there has been a growing interest in the terrorism problem, in general, and the strategy of suicide bombing, in particular. Between 1996 and 2016, Turkey experienced several deadly suicide attacks by groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State. These attacks can be explained by individual-oriented
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The UAE's Foreign Policy Drivers Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-11-23 Sherko Kirmanj, Ranj Tofik
A small state with big ambitions, the United Arab Emirates has become a major player in the Middle East region, especially since the Arab Spring. It played a major role in weakening the Muslim Brotherhood by supporting rulers like Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt and would-be leaders such as General Khalifa Haftar of Libya. Abu Dhabi was the critical player behind the blockade of Qatar in 2017, and it
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Erdoğan's Bid to Re-Establish Dominance After His Pyrrhic Victory Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-11-20 Nihat Ali Özcan, Pınar İpek
This article examines President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's actions since he barely survived the May 2023 election. It argues that although Erdoğan's authoritarian personality and conservative Islamist ideology drive his foreign policy, his pyrrhic victory and Turkey's economic problems have forced him to rebalance the country's regional and bilateral relations with Arab and Western states. The analysis
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The Impact of Eurasianism On Turkey's Role in the Ukraine War Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-11-15 Göktürk Tüysüzoğlu
Turkey's attempt to act as problem solver in the Ukraine crisis follows its hedging strategy. This approach, which creates strategic ambiguity, has been interpreted as Ankara's distancing itself from its Western allies. Since Turkey realizes that an escalation of the war would complicate its NATO relationships, it is trying to capitalize on its good relations with both Ukraine and Russia and play the
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How the Islamic State Rivalry Pushes the Taliban to Extremes Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-11-10 Raj Verma, Shahid Ali
Before establishing the second Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban promised they would not revert to the repressive policies and stringent interpretations of Islam they had imposed during their previous regime. However, since the US withdrawal—and despite financial incentives from the West and diplomatic pleadings within the region—the Taliban have reneged on this vow. Why have
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The Saudi-UAE Divide over the Yemen Quagmire Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-10-29 Selim Öztürk
The expansion of Iranian influence through the Houthi rebels in Yemen alarmed Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, leading them to intervene in the civil war. However, this only prolonged the conflict, in part because the two Gulf neighbors failed to coordinate—indeed, they often followed divergent policies. One reason for this was ideological, as the Saudis favored Yemen's al-Islah party, an
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The War in Ukraine: Risks and Opportunities For the ‘Post-Soviet South’ Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-08-21 Emil A. Souleimanov, Yury Fedorov
The invasion of Ukraine sent shock waves through the South Caucasus and Central Asia, subjecting the eight countries of the post-Soviet area to economic, political, and social challenges. Refusing to support Russia in circumventing sanctions or taking a stand against the invasion could expose these countries to retaliatory measures. But aligning with Moscow could lead to international isolation and
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From Silicon Valley to the Levant: Innovation in the Eastern Mediterranean Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-08-21 Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, Olgu Dervişler
Market economies in the eastern Mediterranean are not counted among ideal-typical innovators. But this picture may be changing. This article explores the emerging innovation systems in the eastern Mediterranean by examining recent data and the literatures on varieties of capitalism and innovation systems. Through the cases of Cyprus, Israel, and Turkey, the study argues that the varieties of capitalism
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A Torn Country: Erdoğan's Turkey And the Elections of 2023 Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-08-11 M. Hakan Yavuz
This article examines the victory of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey's 2023 presidential election, the role of fear-oriented populist nationalism in Turkish politics, and the implications of the results for society. It argues that Turkey faces a deep moral and social crisis rather than a mere political problem. The article explores the sociocultural origins of polarization, as competing communities
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Why Peacekeeping Does Not Promote Peace Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-08-07 Dennis Jett
Peacekeeping, and the conflicts to which it is applied, have evolved since the United Nations began these operations in 1948. Today, the UN has 90,000 peacekeepers deployed around the world in 12 operations that cost the international community $6.5 billion a year. Half of these missions have been going on for a combined total of three centuries, with no solution in sight to any of them. Five of the
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What Drove Syria Back into the Arab Fold? Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-08-07 Saban Kardas, Bulent Aras
After more than a decade of brutal civil war, which is still not resolved and has left Syria divided in thirds, regional states welcomed President Bashar al-Assad back into the fold in May 2023. The Arab League's decision to reinstate Damascus's membership was the culmination of a slow and fitful process that accelerated when Saudi Arabia took the lead. Still, it is too soon to know whether and how
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The Winner Does Not Take All: Lessons from the Israel-Hamas Conflict Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-08-06 Gadi Hitman, Alona Itskovich
Despite countless studies on victory in armed conflict, scholars disagree about the exact meaning of this term. This article, using primary sources in Hebrew and Arabic, aims to define victory and to discern between types of successful outcomes in war. We analyze three case studies of military collision between Israel and Hamas through a model featuring four levels: tactical, operational, strategic
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Hydrogen: Fueling EU-Morocco Energy Cooperation? Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Friedrich Plank, Britta Daum, Johannes Muntschick, Michèle Knodt, Christian Hasse, Ingrid Ott, Arne Niemann
The war in Ukraine and the looming threat of climate change are driving the strategic need to diversify sources of energy, including renewables. Therefore, the European Union aims to develop energy relations with non-EU member states, and Morocco has become a key priority. Both Brussels and Rabat are pursuing ambitious green policies and cooperation initiatives, including on hydrogen. Drawing on theories
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How the Rise of the Rapid Support Forces Sparked Sudan's Meteoric Descent Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Majak D'Agoôt
The processes that transitioned Sudan from a deeply securitized kleptocracy into a fledgling democracy have generated stressors that are now threatening its collapse. The country's two rival generals—Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the Sudan Armed Forces and Mohammed Hamden Dagalo (nom de guerre Hemedti) of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces—have plunged Sudan into a bloodbath. Khartoum, the capital that
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‘Decisive Victory’ and Israel's Quest For a New Military Strategy Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-07-31 Jean-Loup Samaan
In 2020, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the development of a new operational concept called Decisive Victory that aimed to change the way Israel fights wars and to redefine victory on the battlefield. The root cause of this change was the evolution in nonstate threats from armed groups in Gaza and Lebanon. The concept was to drive major reforms of the IDF in training, interoperability among
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The EU and Justice in Palestine: An Interview with Grace O'Sullivan Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-07-17 Roger Gaess
Grace O'Sullivan of the Irish Green Party, affiliated with the European Green Party, has been a member of the European Parliament from Ireland for the South constituency since July 2019. In the European Parliament, she is a member of delegations on Palestine and Mercosur. O'Sullivan previously served as a senator in Ireland and was a sponsor of the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories)
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Hezbollah's Coercion And the Israel-Lebanon Maritime Deal Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-05-17 Daniel Sobelman
In late 2022, Israel and Lebanon signed a US-brokered maritime agreement establishing their permanent maritime boundary and exclusive economic zones, and regulating their rights to gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean. Preceding the agreement was a sustained coercive-diplomacy campaign by Hezbollah. Between June and October, the organization conveyed overt and covert threats, and it pursued
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Russia and the Kurds: A Soft-Power Tool for the Kremlin? Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-05-13 Anna Borshchevskaya
Russia has been the Kurds’ patron for more than two centuries, motivated primarily by the cynical desire to use them against adversaries in broader great-power games while casting itself as a champion of the Kurdish cause. Russia's longstanding and multifaceted relationship with the Kurds demonstrates that when it comes to geopolitics, the United States has more than brute force to contend with. The
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The Negotiated Desecuritization Of Turkey in Saudi Foreign Policy Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-05-13 Hazal Muslu El Berni
Saudi-Turkey relations hit one of their lowest points due to the Arab uprisings and the regional shock of the Gulf crisis. The tension resulted from, and in turn exacerbated, a process of securitization of Saudi discourse, whereby officials labeled Turkey as a threat. But after three and a half years of the Gulf crisis, the Al-Ula accords allowed reconciliation among the regional states and opened
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The Significance of ISIS's State Building in Syria Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-05-10 Samer Bakkour, Gareth Stansfield
Researchers and policy makers appear to hold a deeply rooted reluctance to acknowledge, let alone address, the significance of ISIS's state building. Those who have engaged with this issue have tended to traverse the analytical dead end of legalistic questions and themes, inevitably concluding that ISIS's efforts fell short of the threshold of statehood. This article sharply diverges from this reasoning
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Assessing Israel's Motives In Annexing the Jordan Valley Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-05-10 Fadi Nahhas
This article analyzes Israel's motives in annexing the Jordan Valley—a plan that, if approved, will eliminate any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state, even on a small part of historic Palestine. This promises to be one of the most critical strategic turning points in the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The analysis reveals that the Israeli annexation decision, even if postponed
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The Iran-Israel Conflict: An Ultra-Ideological Explanation Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-05-10 Farshad Roomi
Iran's enmity with Israel is ideological in the first place and strategic in the second. Iran intends through anti-Israel actions and messaging to internally mobilize its populace and, externally, to claim the leadership of the Muslim world and strike a balance against a regional nuclear power. This article uses a critique based on constructivism and realism to reveal how Iran's confrontation with
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Sultanism and Civil War in Libya Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-05-10 Ibrahim Sadoun R. Tunesi
The 2011 Libyan uprising transformed into a civil war in a matter of days—and it has lasted more than a decade. What made this uprising different from others? This article argues that the type of system determined the outcome of the revolt. It posits a relationship between Muammar Qadhafi's sultanistic regime and the fragile political institutions that have allowed the chaos and rivalry to persist
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Distrusted Partnership: Unpacking Anti-Americanism in Turkey Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-03-22 Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, Ümit Erol Aras
The decline of US-Turkey relations has been one of the most striking developments within NATO and the broader Western alliance. This article sheds light on this distrusted partnership by studying anti-American sentiment in Turkish public opinion since the Arab uprisings of the 2010s. Employing a typology of anti-Americanisms introduced by Keohane and Katzenstein, it examines views of the United States
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Turkey's Hydropolitics: Building Order in the Middle East Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-03-02 Somaye Hamidi, Ehsan Mozdkhah
Water resources have evolved into a major tool for expanding a country's regional influence. The dynamic interactions of hydraulics strategies have thus been regarded as critical factors in Middle Eastern politics. As Turkey controls upstream water resources in the region, this study attempts to answer this question: What goals does Turkey pursue with its water-control policy? The article demonstrates
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Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya After the Arab Spring Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-02-27 Lacin Idil Oztig
This article analyzes the political transitions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya after the Arab Spring. While they share similarities regarding the overthrow of their long-lasting regimes, each country followed different trajectories. Early in the process, Tunisia underwent a smooth transformation, while Egypt witnessed intense polarization following the electoral success of the Muslim Brotherhood—and
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Security in the Gulf: The View from Oman Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2023-02-24 Gawdat Bahgat
For a long time, analysts of the Middle East have justifiably focused their attention on Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, three Gulf states holding massive hydrocarbon deposits and financial resources. Their leaders are the main “movers and shakers” of regional affairs and enjoy tremendous influence on the international scene. Still, other Gulf states play significant roles in shaping
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Iran's Trade with Neighbors: Sanctions’ Impact and the Alternatives Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-12-09 Mahjoob Zweiri, Nael Abusharar
This article investigates whether sanctions have changed or influenced Iran's trade patterns, focusing on neighboring countries. The study concentrates first on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), considered Iran's main regional partner. We hypothesize that the sanctions should have had a negative impact on Iran's trade with the UAE, as the latter cooperated with US policies toward the Islamic Republic
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Toward Stable Civil-Military Relations in Sudan Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-12-08 Majak D'Agoôt
The most dramatic of military interventions is the coup d’état, and the cyclical melodrama of putsches in Sudan has placed the country on a violent path. Perhaps a major reason for an irascible officer corps to plot coups is the lack of an effective contract binding the armed forces and society. This is keeping a chokehold on the country's progress, limiting its potential. In search of a better answer
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Christians in Kuwait: A Challenge for Political Tolerance Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-11-28 Faisal Mukhyat Abu Sulaib
The study presented here seeks to determine whether Kuwaiti Christians feel politically and socially integrated, isolated, or even threatened in Kuwait society, as well as to explore their political attitudes and primary social demands. At the same time, the study examines the attitudes and tolerance of Kuwaiti Muslims toward the Christian minority. To that end, two questionnaires were distributed
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The Evolution of Environmentalism in Turkey Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-11-28 Sertif Demir
Environmental problems, caused by and affecting human life, are multifaceted and often interconnected with social and economic factors, and they do not recognize political borders. Like other countries, Turkey has faced severe environmental problems over the last six decades. The state's environmental policy and behavior has been shaped by a combination of economic necessity, international discourse
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Popular Resistance against Israeli Territorial Expropriation: Beita as a Model Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-11-28 Oqab Jabali
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict dates back to the early 1930s. The most crucial factor that prolongs it and prevents any glimmer of hope is Israel's insistence on displacing the Palestinians from their lands and implanting Israeli citizens in their place. Motivated by inference theory, this study aims at investigating the latest wave of popular civil resistance against territorial expropriation in
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A Rare Successful Nonproliferation Policy: The JCPOA Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-11-22 A. Esra Serim
In July 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) addressed the international community's concerns about Iran's nuclear program. The United States and the other P5+1 countries (the permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany) agreed to lift the nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions they had imposed. This article discusses how the US administration successfully formulated
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The US Impact on Qatar's Foreign Policy During the Gulf Crisis Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-11-16 Nouf Aljassar, Beth Rosenson
This article explains the Gulf diplomatic crisis and its repercussions by tracing its various stages. It also analyzes the inconsistency of US policy during the Trump administration toward this crisis and how this taught Qatar not to rely entirely on the United States to achieve security. These challenges pushed Qatar to diversify its international alliances and to create a rapprochement with countries
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The US Adventure in Western Sahara: From Ford to Trump Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-11-09 Domingo Garí
This article analyzes the involvement of American governments in the Moroccan war against the Polisario Front, from the Ford administration to the Trump presidency. The consultation of primary sources clarifies particular aspects of this involvement and indicates the role each actor has played in this conflict. The determined support of Republican administrations for the Moroccan side was due to their
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A New Westphalia in MENA after the Arab Revolutions Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-09-18 Dina Taman, Mohamed Shawky El-Enany
Violent struggles in the Middle East and North Africa have led many experts to compare this era to the Thirty Years’ War, a set of interlinked and extremely deadly and destructive conflicts in Europe (1618-48). Like that conflagration four centuries ago, they involve internal uprisings, civil conflicts, proxy wars, foreign intervention, geopolitical struggles, great-power competition, and the participation
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The Mideast after Covid-19: Governance and Geopolitics Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-09-13 Majed MH Al-Ansari, Bülent Aras, Emirhan Yorulmazlar
Policy makers, political and state elites, and civilian and military cadres have grappled with the unprecedented crisis of Covid-19 in the Middle East and North Africa. Against this gloomy backdrop, the main question became whether the region could sustain its traditional security-first policy even though the definition of security has changed. Could the state perpetuate its role as the arbiter of
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Domestic-Political Impact of Obama-Era Sanctions on Iran Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-09-13 Vahid Yucesoy
The arrival in power of the moderate Hassan Rouhani in 2013 was a groundbreaking moment in Iran, marking a clean break from eight years of sociopolitical conservatism under the previous president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. What provoked this change? This article argues that the institutional shift toward relative moderation under Rouhani was facilitated partly by sanctions, which were imposed when the regime
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Iran at War: From Cyrus to Soleimani Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-09-12 Ahmed S. Hashim
Iran’s armed forces have made tremendous strides since the decade-long war with Iraq in the 1980s. Tehran’s cultivation of ideologically sympathetic forces, along with the provision of material help, has allowed Iran to project power and influence throughout the Middle East. Some policy analysts who study Iran’s military development are biased and lack cultural understanding, contending that the republic
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Dynastic Sacredness: Islam and the Arab Spring in Morocco Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-09-12 Leonid Issaev, Andrey Zakharov
The ruling dynasty of Morocco is one of very few that tracks its royal bloodline back to the Prophet Muhammad himself. Did this lineage contribute to the fact that the North African monarchy was barely touched by the tumultuous Arab Spring of 2011–12? This article challenges such assertions. Despite its divine inception, Moroccan royal power survived the era of modernity solely thanks to the French
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Antinomies of Alignment: Kuwait and the United States Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-09-12 Fred H. Lawson, Matteo Legrenzi
Kuwait has forged a strong bilateral security alignment with the United States over the past three decades. But it has also pursued foreign policies that run counter to expressed American objectives and priorities in the Gulf and the broader Middle East. Why this happens can best be explained in terms of a combination of shifts in the overt US commitment to the partnership and changes in the level
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Western Sahara's Unlearned Lessons Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-09-12 Dennis Jett
The situation in the Western Sahara illustrates an unfortunate aspect of international relations: When countries pursue their national interests and ignore international principles, they can create problems that defy resolution. Such problems are often dumped in the lap of the United Nations, which frequently lacks the means to solve them. The struggle between Morocco's desire to annex the Western
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Oil Resources in Relations Between Erbil and Baghdad Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-09-09 Sara D. Mustafa
The key to independence for the Kurds has always rested on oil resources. After the central Iraqi government claimed that their oil exports and contracts were illegal and in violation of the constitution, the Kurdish political elite decided it was time to either renegotiate terms with Baghdad or push for complete separation. This article seeks to understand the influence of oil resources on the relationship
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Weaponizing Interdependence in the Middle East Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-09-02 Ariel I. Ahram
Global interdependence was supposed to herald a new age of peaceful cooperation. America's global leadership in many ways derives from its ability to maintain, augment, and protect mutually advantageous interactions. Yet the United States has also tried to use its dominance in networks of finance, trade, and communications as a tool of coercion. No region has been more affected by such weaponized interdependence
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Turkish-Jordanian Relations: Between Change and Stability Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-05-31 Nur Köprülü, Hüseyin Ergüven
Relations between Turkey and the Kingdom of Jordan have been among the most stable in the Middle East. This article argues that, nevertheless, the relationship gained momentum following the Arab uprisings, which forced both countries to tackle mounting security concerns. One major challenge has been the influx of a huge number of Syrian refugees accompanying the continued instability in Syria, as well
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The Biden Administration and Rojava: Old Wine, New Bottle? Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-05-30 Wojciech Michnik, Spyridon Plakoudas
One of the domains of US foreign policy stuck on autopilot relates to Syria and, most importantly, Rojava (or AANES by its official name). The Biden administration inherited a quandary from its predecessor with no easy solution. On the one hand, the hostility of other actors in the region—especially Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Syria—render a continued US presence in northeastern Syria untenable in the
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Turkey's Foreign Policy in Post-Soviet Eurasia Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-05-30 Devrim Şahin
The central question explored in this article is what should motivate decision makers in Turkey when formulating the nation's strategies toward the Turkic countries of Eurasia. Should it be pan-Islamism that advocates the unity of all Muslims in the world? Pan-Turkism, based on the unity of Turkic peoples living across Eurasia? Pan-Turanism, asserting the unity of Turanic people throughout the world
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The Palestinian Refugees in Light of the 2020 Abraham Accords Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-05-30 Rami Goldstein
Since 1948, attempts have been made to solve the Palestinian refugee problem. All have failed. Complex international and regional constraints complicate the issue, as do internal political constraints on both Israeli and Palestinian sides. In light of the positive changes in the broader Israeli-Arab conflict—the signing of the Abraham agreements in 2020 by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and
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The Other Saudi Transformation Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-05-11 Bilal Y. Saab
This article describes Saudi Arabia's historic and arduous journey to national-defense transformation, launched around 2015. It analyzes the challenges and opportunities of defense reform in the kingdom while highlighting the role of the United States in this process. Last, the article discusses the future of US-Saudi defense relations.
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F-35 Crisis: Will Turkish-US Defense Cooperation Continue? Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-05-11 Cenk Özgen, Eren Alper Yılmaz, Ozan Örmeci
Although Turkish-American defense cooperation goes back many years, recent steps taken by Turkey have led to a serious crisis. Following the decision to withdraw Patriot air-defense batteries deployed in the south of Turkey by Germany and the United States after 2015, Ankara turned to Russia for the S-400 missile-defense system, citing national security. Turkey was then excluded from the F-35 program
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Iran's Water Security: An Emerging Challenge Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-05-11 Robert Czulda
Water and water management are no longer related to environmental studies. There is a very strong link between water and a state's security, as well as its survival and development. A decline in water availability may lead to a collapse or even the extinction of a whole civilization. Sometimes referred to as a “water-bankrupt” state, Iran is a case that underlines the close relation between water and
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The ‘David’ in a Divided Gulf: Qatar's Foreign Policy and the 2017 Gulf Crisis Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-05-04 Saoud Al-Eshaq, Amjed Rasheed
This article analyzes how Qatar strategically utilized its foreign policy to overcome the implications of the 2017 Gulf crisis. Using neoclassical realism, it investigates the ways in which Qatar used its foreign relations to mitigate the impact of a crisis that barred Qatar from aerial, naval, and land corridors in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, henceforth referred to
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Can Sudan's Democratic Transition Be Salvaged? Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-04-28 Federico Manfredi Firmian, Osman Mirghani
Sudan's democratic transition following the ousting of Omar Al-Bashir in 2019 was from the start an uphill struggle. Three decades of Islamist military dictatorship, multiple internal conflicts, widespread poverty, and depleted state coffers all weighed heavily on the political authorities tasked with forging a new democratic system. Yet, there was hope in Sudan, at least for a time, particularly after
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The Future of Iran's Nuclear Dossier: Possible Options Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-04-28 Mohammad Reza Chitsazian
For more than two decades, the nuclear issue has overshadowed Iran's foreign policy, becoming a major crisis in international politics. On the one hand, great powers and some regional countries are concerned about the military dimension of Iran's nuclear program; on the other hand, Iran is pursuing its nuclear rights confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The challenge has encountered
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Cybersecurity in the GCC: From Economic Development to Geopolitical Controversy Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-03-21 Bassant Hassib, James Shires
While the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are not alone in their increasing exposure to the negative side effects of greater digital dependency, their status as technological leaders—not just in the region, but also in the world—means that they are vulnerable to a variety of cybersecurity threats. This article examines the trajectory of cybersecurity in the GCC states, exploring the main threats
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The Regional-Supremacy Trap: Disorder in the Middle East Middle East Policy (IF 0.462) Pub Date : 2022-03-17 Seyed Masoud Mousavi Shafaee, Vali Golmohammadi
This article analyzes the logic of recent instability and disorder in the Middle East. It offers two interrelated arguments. First, the region has turned into a battle zone in the aftermath of US retrenchment. The United States and other external powers refrained from direct engagement in shaping Middle Eastern order and, therefore, aspirant regional powers were prompted to redesign that order. Second