Talk of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel has been heating up in recent weeks, with American officials visiting Riyadh to hammer out the terms of an agreement and Saudi and Israeli leaders sounding optimistic. But how close to such a deal are we really? Joshua Teitelbaum, a professor of Middle East history at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and an expert on Saudi Arabia, offers his insights on the prospects of normalization. What are the Saudis looking to get out of such an agreement? Why is the United States being asked to provide the inducements? What are the obstacles that stand i ..read more

U.S.-Turkish relations have hit a low point in recent years. Yet it is imperative, according to Michael Doran, that the United States and Turkey rediscover their common interests. What are the sources of conflict between the two countries? How should the United States see Turkey as it formulates Middle East strategy? What are the prospects for U.S.-Turkish relations under the Biden administration ..read more

Under Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has undergone a dramatic transformation as it pursues unprecedented economic diversification and social liberalization. It has also moved toward greater authoritarianism and political repression. What is the outlook for these changes? How stable is the kingdom today? And how will the Biden administration handle the relationship with Saudi Arabia ..read more

In Syria, American foreign policy faces an enormous humanitarian crisis and a political challenge to implement UN Security Resolution 2254, against the backdrop of competition from both Russia and Iran. A US return to "the Iran Deal" is likely to exacerbate conditions in Syria, while continued American support for the Kurdish YPG in Northeast Syria raises human rights concerns. The Syria file is one of the most complex and most urgent that the Biden administration will face ..read more

After the Islamic State seized large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2013-14, the United States led a yearslong effort to roll back the group’s gains. Journalist and author Michael Gordon has written four books on the wars in Iraq, and in his latest, Degrade and Destroy, he takes us inside the war on the Islamic State, detailing the key White House deliberations and military struggles that finally resulted, in 2019, in the liberation of all the territories occupied by the group. Why did the United States fully withdraw from Iraq in 2011 only to return in 2014? What was the strategy for ..read more

The special forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011 yielded a massive trove of documents never intended for publication, but in 2017 the CIA declassified them in their entirety. Nelly Lahoud, a scholar at New America, has written the first history of al-Qaeda based on a systematic reading of these documents, which lay bare the secrets of the group and serve to correct some existing narratives. How strong an organization was al-Qaeda in the decade after 9/11, and what were its objectives? How should we understand the relationship between al-Qaeda and Iran, and between al-Qaeda and t ..read more

Big things are shaping up in the Middle East as the Biden administration appears to be rethinking its get-tough policy on Saudi Arabia, even as it continues to hold out hope for a revived nuclear deal with Iran. Meanwhile, Russia looks poised to shut down a key humanitarian aid corridor in Syria, while the West may have a new opportunity for maintaining pressure on the regime of Bashar al-Asad. Joining us to discuss these developments and more is Joel Rayburn, a retired army colonel visiting fellow at Hoover who served in senior positions at the National Security Council and the State Departme ..read more

In September 2015, Russia intervened militarily in Syria to save the regime of dictator Bashar al-Asad. President Obama predicted a “quagmire,” but that is not what followed. What is the nexus between the Russian intervention in Syria and the more recent Russian “special military operation” in Ukraine? What can the West learn from its failures in Syria that might apply to the case of Ukraine? Will Ukraine turn out to be the quagmire for Russia that Obama predicted for Syria? Anna Borshchevskaya, an expert on Russian policy in the Middle East and author of a new book on Russia’s war in Syr ..read more

On February 3, President Biden announced the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, the leader of the Islamic State, in a U.S. special forces raid on his hideout in northern Syria. The leader, better known as Hajji ‘Abdallah, had been the Islamic State’s so-called caliph since October 2019, following the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Who was Hajji ‘Abdallah and how did he end up in a small town on the border with Turkey? How impactful will his loss be to the terrorist organization he headed? How great of a threat does the Islamic State continue to pose to the region? Aymenn al-Tamimi, a ..read more

Journalist and author Steve Coll examines the debates and decisions in Washington, Kabul, and Doha preceding the collapse of the Afghan government and the return to power of the Taliban. In a recent article in the New Yorker, Steve and coauthor Adam Entous document a “dispiriting record of misjudgment, hubris, and delusion” that characterized the diplomatic efforts to end the war in Afghanistan. What went wrong? Why? And who is to blame ..read more