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...
How Sectarianism Changed After the Arab Uprisings
Sectarianism has been used as a blanket explanation for all the Middle East’s ills, or completely dismissed as an epiphenomenon of more tangible struggles for territory and resources. But somewhere between these two positions...
The Shifting Priorities of Iraq
Almost two and a half years after ISIS took control of Mosul in early June 2014, the Iraqi army launched Operation Fatah, a military campaign aimed at regaining control of the city and its surrounding areas, on October 17, 2016....
Cultural Genocide Funds ISIS Art-for-Weapons Trade
The 57th Venice Biennale, which will run from May until November of this year in Italy, will push boundaries with an exhibit featuring 40 artifacts from the Iraq Museum of Baghdad, many of which have never left the country...
The Evolution of Sayyid Qutb: Radicalization on a Spectrum
In the West, Sayyid Qutb (Kut-Teb) is perhaps the most recognizable Islamist theorist. While it was Hassan al-Banna who founded the Muslim Brotherhood, Qutb was the most noted member. Qutb is credited with laying the...