Requiem for a Spy
James Hanning is the author of the recently published Love and Deception: Philby in Beirut (Corsair, September 2021). Hanning is a former deputy editor of the Independent on Sunday and…
Kingdom Come
One of the subplots of Middle Eastern politics today is the way that Saudi Arabia has stubbornly refused to have anything to do with Lebanon. For years, the kingdom has…
Low Turnout, High Drama
One conclusion that can be drawn from the early parliamentary elections in Iraq, which were held on October 10, is that while the results of the voting alone cannot determine…
It Happened in Madrid
Marwan Muasher is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees research in Washington and Beirut on the Middle East. Muasher served as foreign…
An Investigation in Lebanon Has Led to Armed Clashes Reminiscent of the Civil War
What Happened? On October 14, fighting broke out in Beirut between armed members of Hezbollah and the allied Amal Movement in Beirut on the one side and as yet unidentified…
Behavior Change
Joe Macaron is a resident fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, D.C. where his research focuses primarily on U.S. strategy, international relations, and conflict analysis in the Middle East.…
A Portrait in Parasitism
The scenes of fighting in Beirut’s streets on October 14 sent shockwaves across Lebanon and beyond. It reminded many people of the Lebanese civil war, which began in 1975. In…
The High Cost of An Unpredictable Turkey
In 2019-2020, Turkey’s leadership launched a series of foreign policy and military initiatives. Apart from Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenia, thanks to Ankara’s military support for Baku, the initiatives didn’t yield…
A Fatal Life
Peter Bergen is vice president, global studies and fellows, at New America, a Washington think tank. He is also a CNN national security analyst and a professor of practice at Arizona…
Calculations in Kabul
After initially offering to secure and run Kabul airport, Turkey is now trying to find a role for itself after the Taliban’s sweeping victory in Afghanistan and the massive civilian…
Pivoting Away From America
Republicans in Congress have just accused the Biden administration of withholding a report on Hezbollah’s financial empire. The report, which is to be prepared by the State and Defense Departments,…
Opportunism With Limitations
Frederic Wehrey is a senior fellow in the Carnegie Middle East Program. His research deals with armed conflict, security sector governance, and U.S. foreign policy, with a focus on Libya,…
A New Order in Daraa
Armenak Tokmajyan is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where his research focuses on borders and conflict, Syrian refugees, and local intermediaries in Syria. Tokmajyan…
An Unlikely Savior
The recent formation of Lebanon’s government provoked a minor revolution in how the Taif agreement of 1989, which served as a basis for amending the Lebanese constitution in 1990, will be…
Why Kabul Has an Echo in Idlib
Azzam al-Kassir is a Syrian researcher based in London. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics from Birkbeck,University of London and a Master’s degree in Middle East politics from the University of…