Category Middle East

Civil Society, Middle East, Photo Essays

Freefalling Afghanistan: A Pictorial Journey Through Two-and-a-Half Years of Taliban Rule

April 28, 2024

February 2020 Doha Accord holds the secret of the Taliban’s freedom and rule in Afghanistan. This picture was taken when the Taliban fighters were cruising through Kabul’s streets, triumphing over the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and celebrating…

Middle East, Security & Conflict

The Failings of Israeli and Palestinian Leadership

April 16, 2024

In the past months, the media has frantically shifted its attention to the perilous situation in the Middle East. The Israeli-Hamas war has shattered the brittle status quo between Israelis and Palestinians. The savagery committed by Hamas on October 7…

Civil Society, Middle East, Security & Conflict

Sifting Facts from Fiction: The Underpinnings of the Taliban’s ‘Islamic Emirate’

February 15, 2024

Even after the Taliban have assumed power in Afghanistan twice, their ideology remains poorly understood, evident from the misconceptions surrounding it. Some believe this ideology is reflective of Islam while others attempt to find its basis in the Pashtun culture.…

Civil Society, Energy & Environment, Middle East, Policy & Politics

A Proposal to Manage Human Migration

November 16, 2023

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) last fall focused the world’s attention on the many climate-related crises to come, including floods and droughts; inhospitable heat; saltwater intrusion and inundation; the loss of biodiversity; the loss of agricultural regions; and more violent storms.…

Economics, Governance & Law, Middle East, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Rethinking Irish Migration Governance: Why Refugees and Asylum Seekers Must Be Meaningfully Included in Policymaking Decisions

May 10, 2023

Serena Clark recently finished a consultancy at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), UN Migration. She recently completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Maynooth University. She holds a doctorate in global politics from Trinity College Dublin, where she was a…

Economics, Governance & Law, Middle East, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Negotiating With Gangs: Lessons From the 2012 Truce in El Salvador

April 24, 2023

Siniša Vuković is a Senior Lecturer of Conflict Management and Global Policy and Director of the Master of Arts Global Policy Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Eric Rahman is a Foreign Service Officer with the US Department…

Economics, Governance & Law, Middle East, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Book Review: Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers by Yan Xuetong

April 17, 2023

David B. Kanin is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Review of: Yan Xuetong, Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2019, pp. 262). What follows is a…

Economics, Governance & Law, Middle East, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Integration Meets Insecurity: How Paraguay is Shaping South America’s Center

April 8, 2023

Policymakers across the Western Hemisphere often lament Latin America’s lack of regional integration. On average, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean conduct the least international trade as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) in the world. Broadly, this…

Economics, Governance & Law, Middle East, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Twelve Years of War in Syria: Why is Citizenship Off the Table for Syrian Refugees in Jordan?

March 14, 2023

Zoe H. Robbin is a Fulbright research fellow in Amman, Jordan. She co-leads Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen Diplomacy Working Group. The views expressed here do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the US Department of State, or…

Asia Pacific, Civil Society, Economics, Europe, Middle East, North America, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Johns Hopkins SAIS Faculty and Fellow Reflections: The War in Ukraine at One Year

February 24, 2023

One year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) faculty and SAIS Foreign Policy Institute fellows explain the current state of the war, the varying international responses to it, and…

International Development, Middle East, Policy & Politics, Regional, Topical

Why Iraq’s Consociation Has Become a Driver for Chronic Instability

December 23, 2022

Maria Fantappie is a special advisor at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. Theorists of consociation argue that it is the best kind of democracy a plural society can expect: a power-sharing formula that accommodates leaders representing different segments of the…

Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East, North America, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Countering Terror in Transition: A Typology of Terrorist Organization Successors and their Vulnerabilities

November 15, 2022

Dr. Tricia Bacon is an Associate Professor at the School of Public Affairs at American University. Dr. Elizabeth Grimm is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. One of the singular challenges for a…