Mother of all Bombs: Women as the Best Weapon against Violent Extremism
From Nigeria’s Boko Haram, to Al Qaeda, to ISIS, one commonality that links terrorist and extremist groups is their malicious assaults on the rights of women and girls. However, while women and girls are often the first targets...
Trump’s Support for the House of Saud Highlights his Middle East Hypocrisy
President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia concerned a variety of issues centered on strengthening the strategic U.S.-Saudi partnership and containing their shared rivals in Tehran. While the ongoing war in neighboring...
Do Not Lift the Arms Embargo on Libya
The conflict in Libya is intensifying. Battles between rival militias are unceasing and deadly. As I wrote last month, the conflict is unlikely to resolve quickly. Amid this chaos, Egypt recently called for an end to a United...
The Saudi-Qatar Rift: The Cat Calling the Kettle a Terrorist Financier
Last week, a host of mostly Gulf Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia cut ties with Qatar citing via the Saudi Press Agency “the dangers of terrorism and extremism,” and specifically it’s funding of such terrorist groups. Some,...
Libya’s Grim Future
Last year, Libyan militias supported by U.S. special forces fought to oust the local Islamic State affiliate from the city of Sirte. After a grinding battle, the group was expelled from its primary stronghold in December. Success...
Milking Two Cows: Egypt’s Return to Cold War Politics
Arriving in Tel Aviv after a trip to Cairo, Defense Secretary Mattis praised the U.S.-Egyptian military-to-military relations as a solid bedrock. Just the night before, Egypt freed a U.S. aid worker, Aya Hijazi, who had been held...
Can Saudi Arabia Decrease Its Reliance on Foreign Defense Imports?
In 2016, the new deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman, revealed his highly-anticipated Vision 2030 development plan. One of the Vision’s most ambitious goals is the increase in Saudi Arabia’s defense...
Diaspora State-Building in the Middle East
The Arab world is in a state of flux, and the destruction reshaping these societies is forcing unprecedented numbers of people to flee to the West. While pundits and politicians focus on how these newcomers are reshaping Western...
New Approaches to Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in the Art World
A few months ago, I wrote an article for Charged Affairs examining how a U.S. Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that incorporates a version of World War II’s...
Diplomacy in Action: Lessons from Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an
With over a hundred Americans being held captive by North African criminals, American diplomats in Europe frantically arranged a meeting the Libyan state-sponsored bandits. The meeting took place not in 2017 but in 1786, and the...