Essays

As the Trump presidency ends and Joe Biden is set to be the next U.S. president, thinkers convene to consider what his administration means for the Middle East.

Enhancing Mediterranean Integration

By Blanca Moreno-Dodson

Summer 2020

Trade liberalization, human capital development, and sectoral reforms can bring Mediterranean countries closer together.

Explaining How Washington and the Election Works

By Sean David Hobbs

Fall 2020

In 2016, all predictions about the U.S. elections were wrong. Will Washington insiders get it right this time?

Sustainable Humanism Needed

By Peter J. Jacques

Fall 2020

COVID-19 has become a central election issue, but to overcome this urgent health crisis America needs to tune out the echo chambers that repeat medical misinformation and conspiracies.

Abortion and the Political Futures of Women’s Rights

By Andrew Delatolla

Fall 2020

Gender and women’s rights have been divisive issues in U.S. domestic politics, particularly when it comes to abortion. How has the Trump administration handled these issues and will the 2020 U.S. election serve as a continuation of these policies?

Anatomy of a Revolution

By Sydney Wise

Fall 2020

The fight against racialized violence in the U.S. prison and policing system has characterized the last fifty years of the struggle for racial justice. In 2020, new momentum marks a historic moment.

Resisting the Tide of Bigotry

By Jonathan Weisman

Fall 2020

American Jews are left divided and looking for new directions as Donald Trump embraces the white supremacism of the alt-right and the Zionism of Benjamin Netanyahu

Political Narratives in the Middle East and North Africa: Conceptions of Order and Perceptions of Instability

By Helen Rizzo

Fall 2020

The volume edited by Wolfgang Mühlberger and Toni Alaranta highlights the importance of political narratives in making sense of the complexities of the MENA countries.

The World Is Watching the United States

By Diana Bartelli Carlin

Fall 2020

The United States is facing a perfect storm that puts it in the headlights of its counterparts’ world views.

What the Beirut Blast means for Lebanon’s Refugees

By Ola G. El-Taliawi and Tamirace Fakhoury

Inclusive refugee policies and a renewed approach to humanitarian relief will be needed to protect Lebanon’s most vulnerable.

The Disrupting Stabilizer

By Samuel Ramani

Summer 2020

How Russia’s military, diplomatic, and economic roles in the Mediterranean have developed in recent years

Strategizing Toward Irrelevance in Libya

By Alessia Melcangi

Summer 2020

The Libyan conflict is marred by competing interests, and is where the Mediterranean’s major players all hope to come out on top.

Why Palestinians consider the UAE-Israel Deal a strategic betrayal

By Nour Odeh

Palestinian anger rises towards the UAE-Israel deal, which is not only a breach of international law, but also perceived as a betrayal of long-standing Arab solidarity with Palestine.

Syria’s Prospects for Reconstruction Are Bleak

By Katherine Nazemi, and Alexander Decina

Hindered by an array of domestic and international obstacles and competing regime priorities, the Syrian government’s efforts to attract regional capital for investment and reconstruction will be insufficient.

Greece’s Resource Blessing Comes with Hurdles

By Antonia Dimou

Summer 2020

Can international arbitration and mediation with its neighbors help Greece turn its energy challenges into opportunities in the Eastern Mediterranean?

The EU and the Med: Is Geography Still Destiny?

By James Moran

Summer 2020

Europe needs to find ways of reinvigorating its relations with MENA countries to bring stability in its southern neighborhood and Mediterranean region.

Gas Finds for the People?

By Jason Beckett

Summer 2020

Public international law—tied as it is to existent western-centric neo-colonial structures—will likely block the natural gas finds in the Eastern Mediterranean from benefiting regional states.

The Prospects for Conflict or Cooperation

By Henri J. Barkey, and Ellen Laipson

Summer 2020

Will the Eastern Mediterranean natural gas discoveries lead to regional transformation?

Turkey’s Energy Geopolitics

By Meliha Benli Altunışık

Summer 2020

Turkey is at one end of competing geostrategic visions in the Eastern Mediterranean, but are there avenues for reconciliation with countries at the opposite pole?

Reluctant Power Europe

By Kevin Koehler

Summer 2020

Will Europe’s approach of principled pragmatism toward the Mediterranean succeed in creating stability where previous approaches have failed?