Europe

Maya Berri The relationship between the United States and Israel has long been described as exceptional, built on strategic cooperation, military assistance, shared political interests and close personal ties between leaders. Yet beneath that partnership lies a persistent tension: how far should either country go in influencing the …

There are moments when events move faster than politics can understand them. States then become prisoners of the images they built of their rivals, explaining the present with tools from the past, even after the balance of power has shifted and the map has been redrawn. Few relationships …

Dr. Nessrine Mesto-Assaad Imagine you are taking a picture in a small café in Egypt overlooking the Nile River. You keep the picture on your cloud server, and say to yourself, “I will not share it with anyone; I will keep it to myself.” This personal, spontaneous image …

Amanda Lee The Middle East has entered a dangerous phase in which military superiority no longer guarantees political victory, alliances offer diminishing assurances of protection, and the costs of regional confrontation are increasingly borne by Arab societies. What began as an effort by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to reshape …

Dr. Shehab Al-Makahleh On October 18, Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the outlines of a new Israeli security doctrine built around military superiority, pre-emptive action and the principle of striking perceived threats before they mature. Five days later, an attack in Hebron that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three …

By Roya Bagher A proposal to forgive student debt in exchange for enlistment in a potential US ground force against Iran raises a fundamental question about the relationship between military power and public willingness to fight. If such a proposal gains traction, it would suggest that the challenge …

Dr. Shehab Al-Makahleh George Orwell’s 1984 is often read as a warning about dictatorship. It is also a study of something subtler: how institutions and ordinary people can gradually adapt themselves to a political system they once regarded as unacceptable. The machinery of Orwell’s Oceania does not depend …

In just five months, Syria’s Banyas port has been transformed into a new outlet for Iraqi energy. In April 2026, Baghdad began moving fuel oil through Syria for export from the Mediterranean. By September, it was using the same route in reverse — importing gasoline through Baniyas and …

Dr. Sanaa Al-Husseini Foreign policy is not usually the main factor determining how Americans vote in midterm elections. But the 2026 cycle looks different, with the fallout of foreign crises now intersecting with domestic concerns. The issues raised by candidates in both parties, the results of the primaries, …