Qatar Needs to Do Its Part
An important goal of President Donald Trump’s meetings with Arab and Islamic leaders this past weekend was to encourage them to shoulder more of the burden in defending our common interests...
Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud
Despite their Quiet, Gulf States Remain Uneasy about Iran Deal
The Obama administration insists that “99% of the world” supports the Joint Comprehensi...
Policy Briefs
All in the Family: Saudi Clique Takes Over the State
Saudi Arabia has the rare distinction of being a nation named after a single family. On Wednesday, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud doubled down on this authoritarian tradition with a bold...
Policy Briefs
‘Chickens—gate’ Is All About Obama Trying To Silence Israel
In remarks to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg last week, anonymous senior Obama administration officials ...
Op-eds
Bandar’s Back. Again.
Just after midnight local time, Saudi Arabia’s official news wire announced early Tuesday that the King issued royal decrees making major changes in the country’s national security ec...
Policy Briefs
Saudi Arabia in Syria: Naughty, Not Nice
Saudi Arabia, over the last year, has gone from being a relatively constructive actor in Syria to fueling a jihadist nightmare in the Levant. Information is just now starting to emerge, but repor...
Policy Briefs
Fear and Loathing in the Kingdom
Pundits and policymakers are missing the big worry about the Obama administration's Iranian nuclear deal: its greatest impact is not ensuring that Iran doesn't get the bomb, but that th...
Op-eds
It’s Not Just About Syria. The Saudis Are Direct Targets of Iranian Operations
There is no reason to be surprised at the Saudis' dramatic dissing of the United States in recent days and weeks. And it's not just because the United States has backed away from direct...
Op-eds
What’s Going on in Syria?
Syria has been regularly popping up in the news. In fact, recent events point to the importance of that country for the future of the Middle East. Syria's political situation may indeed have...
Op-eds
Bandar’s Return
As my friend Simon Henderson has been chronicling, "Bandar is back." Sidelined in recent years by some combination of illness and palace intrigue, Saudi Arabia's legendary former ambassador...
Op-eds
From Russia with, Well … Not Much
Following Syrian President Bashar Assad's recent visit to Russia, and on the heels of the Russian military assault in Georgia, there was a flurry of commentary by regime-sanc...
Op-eds
Syrian-Saudi Media Wars
The recent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah produced a dramatic resurgence of Saudi-Syrian tensions, which have been boiling beneath the surface since the assassination of former Lebanese Pr...
Op-eds
Too Much Make-Believe
In the early years of the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia was effectively cut off from all sources of raw film stock. Luckily for the Soviets, cheap copies of the silent films imported during the wa...
Op-eds
Saudi-Syrian Relations after Hariri
Tony Badran is a PhD candidate in Ancient Near Eastern studies at New York University. He is also a Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, with a particular focus on Lebanes...
Op-eds
The Dysfunctional House of Saud
By Stephen Schwartz THERE COMES A TIME in the history of every oppressive state when the need for change is suddenly and widely understood to be imperative. Inevitably, an incident occur...
Op-eds
The Real Saudi Arabia
The Monday bombings in Riyadh are only the latest evidence that the Saudi government cannot and will not suppress extremism. The wake-up calls keep coming, but the U.S. refuses to recognize the k...