Expert Commentary

Last week, Congress reached consensus on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the $783 billion bill that funds the Department of Defense. To discuss the bill and how it may impact U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, the...

On December 4, 2019, the New York Times reported that the Islamic Republic of Iran had exported ballistic missiles to its non-state clients in Iraq. The news is similar to Tehran’s activities in Yemen, where Iranian forces have sent...

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) receives a lot of attention for its standing within the IC and for its role in conducting sensitive collection and producing analyses used at the highest levels of government. Since its founding in 1947,...

The post-9/11 wars have spurred a lot of attention on the problem of transnational foreign fighters. Such foreign fighters—foreign nationals drawn to intervene into civil conflicts for reasons of religion, ethnicity, or ideology—have been used to generate combat power...

On September 17, 2019, Israelis went to the polls to vote in the second national election in the last 5 months. The narrative, at least leading up to the recent vote, was that the election was a redo of...

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been at war for almost its entire existence, beginning with the Iraqi invasion of the country in 1980 and, then, in an asymmetric way in support of regional clients, often working against American...

On Thursday, June 13, 2019, two tankers, the Kokuka Courageous and the MT Front Altair, were damaged in explosions in the Gulf of Oman, after transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking at...