Geopolitics / Middle East

Feb 24, 2010 at 12:54 | Fawzia Sheikh

While the Iraqi government has made overtures to its Kurdish counterpart in the north to end an oil standoff, much remains in doubt without an actual law keeping the industry…

Feb 09, 2010 at 20:54 | Fawzia Sheikh

U.S. lawmakers are toughening their stance on Iran’s energy industry with new economic penalties, but experts doubt the Islamic regime will pay much attention and is more likely to open…

Feb 02, 2010 at 19:32 | Claude Salhani

The Middle East peace talks are at a deadlock. Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to move ahead with the plan established by the so-called Quartet – the US., U.N.,…

Jan 19, 2010 at 15:37 | Gregory R. Copley

US and Western European political leaders have begun to focus on Yemen as a source of projected instability and as a haven for jihadist terrorism against the West. This simplistic…

Jan 05, 2010 at 17:53 | Yossef Bodansky

Very senior officials in several Persian Gulf states have confirmed to GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs a growing volume of whispers coming from Tehran since mid-December 2009 which identify Iranian Ayatollah…

Jan 01, 2010 at 23:56 | Yossef Bodansky

Despite the lingering demonstrations and disorder in Tehran, Iran’s ruling mullahs are confident anew in their country’s ability to surge to a hegemonic position in the Middle East without a…

Dec 29, 2009 at 21:16 | Yossef Bodansky

The coming year: 2010, will see a growing clash of conflicting mega-trends in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater; trends which will ultimately have long-term impact not only on the region, but on…

Dec 27, 2009 at 20:08 | Tejinder Singh

Baghdad is coming of age in its own backyard with the awarding of contracts for developing its oil reserves while taking care of its assets as evident from its tough…

Dec 23, 2009 at 14:04 | Claude Salhani

In order to survive revolutions must continue to propagate themselves or else they die; that was true of revolutions on the left that saw their golden years in the late…

Dec 19, 2009 at 03:54 | Gregory R. Copley

Iran's strategy to break Iraq into three component territories, and to dominate those territories in order to reduce regional opposition and to gain unfettered access to Syria and the Mediterranean…

Dec 15, 2009 at 13:59 | Claude Salhani

For the last several decades it was generally assumed that Israel was the United States’ staunchest ally in the Greater Middle East. But when former Nebraskan Republican Senator Chuck Hagel…

Dec 10, 2009 at 21:16 | Defense and Foreign Affairs

Iran is gathering momentum to become a great regional power with global implications. It is already a nuclear weapons power, with externally-acquired nuclear weapons. But the question facing Iranians and…

Dec 08, 2009 at 14:44 | Claude Salhani

History was made about ten days ago in Vienna at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency when China and Russia voted along with the United States to sanction…

Oct 16, 2009 at 18:15 | John Daly

As the Obama Administration ponders how to produce something resembling victory from the Afghan quagmire, it faces a number of foreign policy choices, few of them palatable. Despite the earnest…

Oct 01, 2009 at 16:30 | John Daly

Operation Enduring Freedom, on Oct. 7 will begin its ninth year. At $4 billion per month, a National Priorities Project has determined that the total cost of military operations in…