Analysis

The ISIS leader threatened attacks on Israel and called on Muslims to join the group, but his appeal largely fell flat to hundreds online. In Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s latest purported call to violence, the leader of ISIS insisted his self-declared caliphate was strong and intact, despite the erosion …

When Saudi Arabia announced Saturday that it had executed Nimr al-Nimr, a controversial Shia cleric, international criticism was sharp and swift. Al-Nimrwas a harsh critic of the Saudi leadership, and his rhetoric occasionally contained striking similarities to that of Iranian leaders. Yet the Saudis had locked him up …

First off, Russia has assumed the key role of setting the region’s agenda, and it’s Moscow, no other country, that’s affecting the most tangible change in the Middle East region. This development didn’t come out of nowhere, as despite the surprised reaction of many observers, Russia had been …

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya After shooting down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M tactical bomber jet operating in Syrian airspace, in early December 2015 the Turkish government sent a heavily armed battalion to the Zilkan military base in Iraq. This move ignited tensions between Ankara and the Iraqi federal government, which …

n a recent article in the National Interest, Paul Pillar addresses Iran’s ballistic missile program under the title: “Get Over It: Iran will have Missiles.” In other words, he suggests that we resign ourselves to what he regards as Iran’s legitimate ballistic missile program, which he argues is …

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties (NYT) with Iran in the regional fallout triggered by the Saudi execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric. Nimr was one of forty-seven prisoners executed (BBC) across the country on Saturday. The severing of ties comes after protesters stormed the …

Kemal Kirkuki’s headquarters overlooks a pastoral scene northwest of Kirkuk. Decked out in traditional Kurdish clothes he had just finished a meeting. An orderly brought tea. Across one wall of his office is a giant map of the current area of operations for his peshmerga units. The peshmerga …

The political space for nonviolent, Islam-inflected politics has become narrower and more treacherous in the last year. Squeezed by repression on one side and radical violence on the other, nonviolent political Islamists were increasingly silenced or eliminated in 2015. Moderate parties were sidelines in Egypt, Algeria, Jordan and …

Peter Harris Many analysts believe that the international system is sliding towards multipolarity, a world in which no single great power is in a position to dominate its peers. But among those who subscribe to this view, there is some debate over just how the coming multipolar order …