COVID-19 in Bahrain
As low oil prices and the pandemic strain Bahrain’s state budget, Manama may seek economic assistance from its Gulf neighbors. Less certain, however, is whether those neighbors will come to the island...
Algeria
COVID-19 in Northeast Syria
The reported number of coronavirus cases in northeast Syria remains in single digits, in part because healthcare workers have so little ability to test for the virus. Local authorities are preparing for...
Policy Briefs
Iran Is Airlifting Supplies to Venezuela. The Trump Administration Should Move to Block It.
The Islamic Republic can leverage the Maduro regime's ability to access sanctioned goods as payment for its services.
Op-eds
COVID-19 in Qatar
As Qatar’s COVID-19 epidemic worsens, the country’s dismal human rights record has returned to the spotlight. Doha has locked down crowded labor camps that house expatriate workers, leaving them few...
Policy Briefs
Gaza’s Militant Groups Battle COVID-19
With local authorities in Gaza woefully unprepared to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, Hamas has turned to its familiar strategy of leveraging violence and international pressure to extort Israel into providing...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Libya
The coronavirus has barely affected Libya, according to official statistics, but the true number of cases is likely underreported. An ongoing civil war, a large refugee and migrant population, and a deficient...
Policy Briefs
Lebanon, Hezbollah, and COVID-19
In response to the pandemic, the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah has waged an aggressive public relations campaign aimed at displaying its primacy within Lebanon. This campaign has also demonstrated...
Policy Briefs
Algeria’s ‘Revolution of Smiles’ Democracy Movement Hit Hard by COVID-19
The coronavirus outbreak has provided Algeria’s regime a pretext to consolidate its political control by repressing independent media and activists affiliated with the Hirak democratic protest movement....
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 and the Economy in Regime-Held Syria
The pandemic has worsened the currency crisis and inflation that have afflicted Syria since the economy in next-door Lebanon began to collapse last September. The cash-strapped regime of Bashar-al Assad...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Yemen
Yemen registered its first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus last week, threatening to add a COVID-19 epidemic to what the United Nations already calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. While...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Regime-Held Syria
The regime of Bashar al-Assad continues to report implausibly low numbers of COVID-19 cases, while evidence mounts of deliberate deception. The presence of tens of thousands of Iranian-backed militia fighters...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Israel and the Palestinian Territories
Israel’s COVID-19 outbreak has profoundly impacted the country’s domestic political and economic situation. Israel’s relationship with the Palestinian Authority (PA) is better than expected, but a...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Iran
Iran’s coronavirus epidemic is the worst in the Middle East. Yet the Islamic Republic has downplayed the epidemic, substantially boosted funding for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and state...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in the Gulf
The coronavirus pandemic and Russian-Saudi oil price war have triggered an historic drop in oil prices, shaking the economic and fiscal foundations of the oil-dependent Arab Gulf states and stretching their...
Policy Briefs
Energy Markets After Covid-19
The global oil market entered the COVID-19 crisis with extreme supply excess, created by record U.S. and Russian production alongside an intentional production increase by Saudi Arabia. This week, on April...
Insights
COVID-19 in Iraq
The timing of the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraq has been particularly unfortunate, arriving concurrently with several other major crises, including a collapse in world oil prices, the absence of a functioning...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Afghanistan
As U.S. forces prepare to depart Afghanistan next year, the Taliban has seized on the COVID-19 crisis to present itself as an entity capable of governing more effectively than the elected and internationally...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Turkey
Turkey’s coronavirus epidemic is one of the most serious in the world; it has the second-largest number of confirmed cases in the Middle East, behind only Iran. With the country’s public health crisis...
Policy Briefs
Occupied Elsewhere
Selective Policies on Occupations, Protracted Conflicts, and Territorial Disputes
Monographs
Turkish Voters – and Putin – Will Restrain Erdogan’s Libya Ambitions
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to turn the tide of the civil war in Libya, but the pushback from the Turkish electorate – and Russian President Vladimir Putin – is likely to restrain his...