Middle East Institute
MEI’s Frontier Europe Initiative explores interactions between Middle East countries and their Frontier Europe neighbors – the parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus which form a frontier between Western Europe, Russia and the Middle East. The program examines the growing energy, trade, security and political relationships ...
Two years on, what is the state of the Abraham Accords?
Sep 14, 2022 · Gerald M. Feierstein, Yoel Guzansky. Two years after the Sept. 15, 2020, signing of the Abraham Accords, which normalized diplomatic relations among Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and, potentially, Sudan, progress in developing relations has achieved mixed results. As anticipated, normalization has opened new opportunities ...
The Iranian Revolution of February 1979 - Middle East Institute
Jan 29, 2009 · The revolution of February 1979 was a revolt of the society against the state. In some of its basic characteristics, the revolution did not conform to the usual norms of Western revolutions, because the state did not represent just an ordinary dictatorship but an absolute and arbitrary system that lacked political legitimacy and a …
10 key events and trends in the Middle East and North Africa in 2021
Dec 20, 2021 · The year of Assad’s normalization. The catch-22 of civil wars in the Middle East. Iran’s hardliners consolidate their hold on power. The end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan. The lessons of the May war in Gaza. Israel’s new government lowers the temperature of the debate. A year of reckoning in energy markets.
The Taliban’s religious roadmap for Afghanistan
Jan 26, 2022 · The ISKP, for its part, has violently opposed the Taliban for imposing an exclusively Hanafi state in Afghanistan. All the while, a tangled web of jihadists has romanticized the Taliban’s victory. In a statement, al-Qaeda glorified the Taliban for “ breaking America’s back," showering it with praise for not abandoning the way of “jihad ...
MEI Podcasts - Middle East Institute
Oct 10, 2024 · Middle East Focus is MEI's flagship weekly podcast featuring discussion and analysis on U.S. foreign policy and contemporary political and social issues in the Middle East. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast providers. View Episodes. Rethinking Democracy. This is a critical year for the future of democracy.
Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe
October 30, 2020. Diana Darke. Drawing on ideas and styles passed from vibrant Middle East trading cities into the West, the architectural heritage of Europe — and America — owes an important debt to the Arab and Islamic world, as I lay out in my new book, Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe.
Beyond the Bedouin path: The evolution of Emirati national …
Dec 1, 2021 · The UAE will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the qiyam al-dawla (establishment of the state) and qiyam al-ittihad (establishment of the federation of seven emirates) on Dec. 2. Since 1971, the Emirati political elite has addressed the complex responsibilities of building a functional bureaucratic apparatus while shaping the nation’s identity. An oil-based model informed this state-building ...
The Houthis’ war and Yemen's future | Middle East Institute
Sep 23, 2022 · 3 Mohammed Izzan, a leading Zaydi scholar and a cofounder, with Hussein al-Houthi, of the Believing Youth Movement, has documented Iran’s efforts and outreach to the Zaydi community at length. According to Izzan, in the 1980s and 1990s, the Islamic Republic dispatched Khomeinist scholars to North Yemen and paid for Yemeni Zaydi religious students to study in its religious institute in Qom.
Addressing challenges to tolerance and religious diversity in Iraq
Jul 5, 2023 · Iraq has long had a troubled history with its ethno-religious minorities, one full of oppression and violence. This was true under the Ba’athist regime and continued after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, reaching a nadir with the rise of the Islamic State terrorist group. Although Iraq is now enjoying its most stable period in the past two decades, it …