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March 6, 2026 Lebanon’s Narrow Window To Disarm Hezbollah Once again, Hezbollah has dragged Lebanon into a war with Israel. Despite promising signals, Beirut remains unserious about reasserting the state’s authority. On March 2, the Lebanese Cabinet proscribed... March 6, 2026 Israel Is Taking Aim at Hezbollah’s Banking Sector. The U.S. Should Follow Suit. The ongoing war against Iran’s clerical regime isn’t confined to the skies above Tehran — at least not for Israel. On March 2, the Israel Defense Forces attacked 18 branches of Al-Qard al-Hassan... March 5, 2026 Hezbollah’s Recklessness May Restore Israel’s ‘Security Zone’ Hezbollah built much of its political legitimacy on the claim that it forced Israel to withdraw from its “security zone” in southern Lebanon in 2000. The group’s decision to now join Iran’s war... March 5, 2026 China’s Defense Budget Keeps Growing While Economy Contracts In the middle of its spring budgeting season, it’s guns, not butter, for Beijing. Ahead of its annual “Two Sessions” legislative gatherings on March 5, China unveiled its latest series of planned... March 5, 2026 Strikes on Iranian Nuclear Sites Signal Resolve To End Tehran’s Nuclear Weapons Program Four strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities during the current U.S.-Israeli military campaign underscore both allies’ determination to eliminate Iran’s remaining pathways to nuclear weapons. The... March 4, 2026 Will NATO’s Downing of an Iranian Ballistic Missile Over Turkey Shift Ankara’s Stance? NATO forces intercepted an Iranian ballistic missile inside Turkish airspace on March 4 —the first instance of NATO territory receiving incoming fire from the Islamic Republic since conflict began on... March 4, 2026 Oman’s Flipflopping on Iran Will Leave It Isolated in the Gulf Even being targeted by Iranian drone strikes is not enough to stop Oman from hedgingand even trying to accommodate Tehran. While other Gulf states issued severe condemnations of attacks on their... March 4, 2026 Iran’s Pro-Regime Hackers Cannot Back Up Their Claims of Successful Cyber Attacks As the United States and Israel continue to pummel the clerical regime in Iran, its hackers are threatening to join the fray. The Cyber Isnaad Front, a regime proxy, warned at the outset of the operation... March 4, 2026 Washington Must Ensure Beirut Acts on Its Promise To Disarm Hezbollah Hezbollah, despite its assurances to Lebanese officials, launched a barrage of rockets and drones at Israel on the morning of March 2, making Lebanon an unwilling party to the war with Iran. In response,... March 4, 2026 The Energy War Iran Can’t Win Iran’s leaders know they cannot win this war outright. Their strategy, as analysts have noted, is to drive up the costs for President Donald Trump — in casualties, energy prices, and inflation —... March 3, 2026 Israel Strikes Tehran Regime’s Assembly of Experts, Underlining Efforts to Disrupt Succession Process Israel’s military isn’t making it easy for the Islamic Republic of Iran to choose a new leader. On March 3, the Israeli Air Force reportedly carried out strikes against a building housing the Assembly... March 3, 2026 U.S. Must Pressure Baghdad To Rein in Iran-Backed Militias After largely sitting out the 12-Day War between Israel and Iran in June last year, Tehran’s proxies in Iraq quickly jumped into the fighting after the United States and Israel began operations against... March 3, 2026 Qatar Shuts Down LNG Production, Opening the Door for American Energy Leadership As Iranian missiles rain down on the Gulf, global energy markets are also being hit. Qatar’s national energy company, QatarEnergy, announced on March 2 that it suspended liquified natural gas (LNG)... March 2, 2026 Egypt Offers a Mix of Messages About the U.S.-Israel War in Iran When the United States and Israel began Operation Epic Fury early on February 28, Egypt remained conspicuously quiet. The hesitation reflected Egypt’s competing pressures: a strategic partnership with... March 2, 2026 Russia Watches Iran War From the Sidelines — Again Amid its all-consuming war in Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly found itself struggling to shape other global events — from the Caucasus to the Middle East to Latin America. Moscow is now again watching from the sidelines as the United States and Israel seek to topple the regime in Iran, potentially dealing a further blow to Russian interests. In the short term, though, the Middle East conflict carries greater risk for Ukraine, since it could divert U.S. attention and military resources. March 2, 2026 Beijing Offers Tehran Lukewarm Rhetorical Support as Iranian Actions Threaten China’s Oil, Trade Flows Actions speak louder than words. But right now, words are all that China can afford to offer the regime in Iran. On March 1, the Chinese Foreign Ministry condemned the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader... March 1, 2026 Hezbollah Deliberates Over Attack on Israel as Further Strikes Hit Iranian Regime Targets Operation “Epic Fury” opened with a well-placed strike against Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s compound in Tehran, eliminating him and several other senior officials. Yet save for sharply worded,... March 1, 2026 Iran’s Desperate Gamble: Widening the War Only hours after the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iranian territory began, Tehran launched barrages of missiles and drones at the other Gulf states, essentially transforming its neighbors into bargaining chips... March 1, 2026 Khamenei is Gone, But the Regime Isn’t The Tehran regime’s octopus may have lost its head, but its tentacles still grip the country and the region. The joint military campaign by the United States and Israel launched on February 28 has... March 1, 2026 Backing the Tehran Regime’s Survival, Turkey Condemns U.S. Strikes on Iran Within hours of the launch of U.S. and Israeli combat operations targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran on February 28, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly condemned both the offensive and... March 1, 2026 Overcoming Division, Arab Gulf States Condemn Iran in Harmony After Being Struck by Missiles Smoke began rising across the Persian Gulf region hours after the United States and Israel launched military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran on February 28. Following America’s opening salvo,... February 28, 2026 First Day of U.S.-Israeli Combined Attack on Iran Signals Regime Change Is the Goal Americans went to bed on Friday, February 27, anticipating continued nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran in Vienna next week. Instead, they woke to a conflict spanning the... February 27, 2026 U.S. Deploys F-22s to Israel as Iran Tries To Intimidate Washington’s Arab Partners In an extraordinary development, the United States deployed up to 12 F-22 fighter aircraft to Israel’s southern Ovda airbase this week after several of America’s Arab partners suggested they would... February 27, 2026 U.S. Prosecution of Chinese Scientists May Have Been Abandoned in Negotiations With Beijing After uncovering Chinese efforts to smuggle biological samples into the country, Washington may have negotiated with Beijing to drop the charges against those allegedly responsible. On February 25,... February 27, 2026 Prisoner Exchange Between Central Government and Druze Factions is an Opportunity To Cement Stability in Syria After the July 2025 Syrian government offensive in the south of the country that resulted in the deaths of at least 1,000 members of the Druze minority, reconciliation between Damascus and the Druze appeared... February 26, 2026 Treasury Moves To Cut Off Swiss Bank for Aiding America’s Adversaries An opaque Swiss bank may soon lose its access to the U.S. dollar — and the story of how it got there runs through Venezuela, Russia, and Iran. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement... February 26, 2026 Hamas Turns to Seaborne Arms Smuggling Hamas has increased the scope of its tactics to rearm in Gaza, using the Mediterranean Sea’s undertow as its instrument. Israeli media have reported that Hamas is using drift-containers that float... February 26, 2026 Turkey Negotiates Repatriation of ISIS Detainees It Once Enabled After years of serving as a key transit hub for foreign fighters and an enabler of the Islamic State’s (ISIS’s) campaign to establish a caliphate, Turkey is now in negotiations to repatriate its own... February 26, 2026 Chinese Online Influence Operation Spreads Anti-American Conspiracy Claims President Donald Trump is to blame for the worsening fentanyl crisis in the United States. The U.S. manipulated the elections in Honduras last November. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is a corrupt... February 25, 2026 How Russia Used Influence Operations To Undermine U.S. Interests in Africa Two years ago, the West African nation of Niger dismissed U.S. troops and welcomed Russian ones. A new report documents how Russian information operations exploited preexisting vulnerabilities that facilitated... February 25, 2026 Leaked Documents Highlight China’s Role in New Belarusian Ammo Plant A new report has revealed critical details regarding China’s role in establishing a new Belarussian factory that is expected to supply artillery ammunition to the Russian military. The February 23 report... February 25, 2026 Hezbollah Puts the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in Its Sights The safety of U.S. governmental assets and personnel in Lebanon cannot be taken for granted. Underscoring that concern, the State Department ordered the departure of all non-emergency government personnel... February 24, 2026 Washington Must Not Relax Nonproliferation Standards for Saudi Arabia Will a forthcoming nuclear deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia ease Riyadh’s path to attaining a nuclear weapon? Current indications suggest that, worryingly, the answer is yes. The United States... February 24, 2026 Four Years Into Russia’s Invasion, U.S. Course Correction Needed To End War in Ukraine Exactly four years since launching its full-scale invasion, Russia has still failed to subjugate Ukraine. Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin has not abandoned that goal. He now aims to achieve at the... February 24, 2026 Lebanon Is the Second Front in a Looming Iran War Tensions between Washington and Tehran are rising by the day. But while much of the commentary focuses on what might happen inside Iran, more immediate danger likely lies to Israel’s north. Lebanon is... February 24, 2026 Despite Sitting on Board of Peace, Turkey Implements New Measures To Block Trade With Israel In keeping with its reputation as Hamas’s most vocal cheerleader on the international stage, Turkey has announced new measures to stifle Israel’s international trade. Specifically, Ankara will refuse... February 23, 2026 China’s Covert Test May Signal a Shift in Beijing’s Nuclear Posture China is actively modernizing and expanding its nuclear arsenal to incorporate next-generation capabilities. Citing sources familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments, a February 21 CNN report noted... February 23, 2026 Iran’s Crackdown on Christians Undermines Trump’s Emphasis on Religious Freedom When the Tehran regime falters abroad, Iran’s religious minorities pay the price at home. A recently published report by Christian advocacy groups, including Article 18, Open Doors, Christian Solidarity... February 20, 2026 Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump’s ‘Emergency’ Tariffs, Not His Ability to Reorient Global Trade The Supreme Court just issued a significant blow to the Trump administration’s trade policy. On February 20, the high court ruled that Donald Trump’s application of tariffs under the International... February 20, 2026 Eyeing China’s Growth, NIST Launches New Standards Initiative for AI Agents Washington is seeking to place artificial intelligence (AI) agents at the center of American technology dominance. On February 17, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) launched the... February 20, 2026 Turkey Leaves Gaza Peace Board Summit Empty-Handed Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan left the inaugural Board of Peace summit in Washington without securing a spot for Turkish troops in Gaza’s International Stabilization Force (ISF). Turkey’s exclusion... February 20, 2026 Poland Bans Chinese Cars From Military Sites Over Spying Fears The idea that cars might spy on people sounds like something from a box office thriller or a Jetsons cartoon, but Polish officials have recognized the real espionage risk associated with Chinese smart... February 20, 2026 Gaza’s Nascent Police Force Has a Personnel Problem The second convening of President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace in Washington on February 19 was intended to highlight progress toward a post-war vision for Gaza. The event featured detailed presentations... February 19, 2026 Gaza’s New Police Force Must Exclude Hamas “There will be 5,000 Palestinian police officers deployed in Gaza,” declared [TK1] Ali Shaath, chairman of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), during a Board of Peace... February 19, 2026 Iran’s Khamenei Invites Conflict, Not Compromise Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei doubled down on threats against the U.S. while denigrating President Donald Trump in a February 17 speech. Speaking on the same day that top Iranian officials concluded talks with U.S. negotiators in Geneva, Khamenei flatly ruled out abandoning uranium enrichment. He also dismissed U.S. demands that Tehran’s ballistic missile program and support for terrorist proxies be included in the negotiations. February 18, 2026 The Mass Escape of ISIS Detainees Is a Warning Against U.S. Withdrawal From Syria Serious concerns are emerging over the ability of the Syrian government to maintain security in the northeast of the country following its recent offensive against the Kurdish-led, U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic... February 18, 2026 Russia’s Alleged Use of Chemical Weapon To Murder Alexei Navalny Shows Cost of Impunity Five European countries have accused Russia of using a lethal chemical weapon to murder the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The joint statement issued on February 14 by the UK, France, Sweden,... February 17, 2026 Doctors Without Borders Admits Terrorists Are Using Gaza’s Nasser Hospital The Nasser Hospital in Gaza reacted indignantly to the accusation by Doctors Without Borders — known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) — that armed men have been witnessed roaming... February 13, 2026 OpenAI Alleges China’s DeepSeek Stole its Intellectual Property to Train its Own Models One year on from DeepSeek’s first major release, Washington is probing deeper into the Chinese artificial intelligence firm’s unexpected success. The U.S. AI firm OpenAI publicly released a memo... February 13, 2026 Vance Visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan Signals U.S. Push Into Region Dominated by Russia The U.S. is using diplomatic and economic carrots to project influence in a region that Russia has long regarded as its backyard. Vice President JD Vance visited Armenia and Azerbaijan from February...

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