“Kata’ib Hezbollah fired rockets at a US base in Taji, north of Baghdad on Wednesday March 11th, and the base was attacked again a few days later. Could the fact that the base was attacked twice in a week be a coincidence?” Read NESA Alumnus Dr. Dania Khatib’s editorial in the Arab News here.
Iraq
The Day after al-Sistani
NESA Professor Dr. Hassan Abbas writes for CGP: “The world’s most prominent Shiite religious leader, Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, commands a great deal of influence and respect – not just in Iraq, but around the world. Questions about who will succeed the cleric and how the reportedly complicated selection process will unfold are being raised Read More >
The Future of Middle East States
NESA Alumnus Hussein Solomon writes: “It is clear that the European Westphalian state system which was imported into the Middle East by colonial powers through the Sykes-Picot Line in 1916 is under threat. In some cases, such as Libya and Yemen, state collapse is a reality, while in others the future of political authority is Read More >
The Changing Security Dynamics of the Persian Gulf
The contradictory trends of the ‘post-Arab Spring’ landscape form both the backdrop to, and the focus of, this volume on the changing security dynamics of the Persian Gulf, defined as the six GCC states plus Iraq and Iran. https://bit.ly/2rIPmBY
The Arab Gulf States and the West: Perceptions and Realities – Opportunities and Perils
This book examines the changing image of the Arab Gulf States in the West. It addresses the question of perception in international relations and how the Arab States of the Gulf have pursued various endeavors to project themselves into Western imagination. https://bit.ly/2SavYNb
From Democratization to Securitization: Post‐Arab Spring Political Order in the Middle East
This article examines the question: why and how the wave of democratization in the Middle East has receded, giving way to the prioritization of security in the post‐Arab Spring by conducting analyses at three levels: societal, state, and international. By applying the main concepts and theories found in the literature on democratization and securitization and Read More >
U.S. National Security Strategy 2018- English, French, Russian, Dari
President Donald Trump released his administrations U.S. National Security Strategy. See his vision here. The four main pillars of his new strategy include: Protecting the U.S. from threats. Promoting American prosperity. Preserving “peace through strength.” Advancing American influence. Take a look at his vision and further explanation of the pillars here in: English (web-link); English Read More >
Arab States and the Alienation of the Masses: Pre and post Arab Spring
State polices and the strategic choices of the ruling elite have alienated the Arab people. This paper analyzes the source of the Arab masses alienation by the state using the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index (BTI) and the World Wide Governance Indicators along the following dimensions: lack of political participation; unstable democratic institutions; lack of political Read More >
Irregular War: ISIS and The New Threat From The Margins
Over the past two years, several books have appeared focusing on Islamic State (IS). These have largely focused on its history, its ideological appeal or its propensity to make use of social media to spread its message of hate. Other publications have examined the subject matter from a military perspective – that of counter-insurgency. In Read More >
The Evolution of Islamic State’s Strategy
Despite having a vast number of forces arrayed against it – the United States-led coalition, Putin’s Moscow, Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, Kurdish Peshmerga and the regimes in Baghdad and Damascus – Islamic State (IS) has expanded into other areas. Despite losing territory in Iraq and Syria, IS is growing in the Far East, the Read More >