The unprecedented combination of political chaos, cross-cutting military confrontations and strategic contradictions in northern Syria reached a...
The pictures of 5-year-old Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh sitting dazed and bloodied Wednesday in the back of an ambulance have rightly sparked worldwide anger and...
Events on the ground in several countries are proving correct what many of us have been saying publicly and privately for the past two years: Daesh (ISIS) is...
To understand what actually takes place on the ground in any given situation, I have always found it useful to ask: where do the guns come from, who is...
The outcome of military and political developments in Aleppo in the coming months will clarify critical dimensions of the Syria conflict that also reverberate...
I generally refrain from writing about domestic politics in Lebanon, except when events here reflect wider regional patters. We are passing through such a...
Never in modern history has the Arab world experienced such a wide range of jarring political developments as it does today, including fragmenting states,...
Words are only words, but words often matter if they are the first step toward action, especially when uttered by a global power. This is the case with a...
The sad spectacle of the truncated “summit” of Arab leaders in the Mauritanian capital Monday was even more embarrassing than usual for this recurring event....
The failed military coup in Turkey and the country’s many links with key regional actors in Syria, Russia, Iran, NATO and clarify how difficult it has become...
The recent and ongoing spate of decisions by several Arab governments to dissolve and ban certain political groups (mostly Sunni or Shiite Islamists) is a...
Thursday night it was in Nice, France. Tomorrow it will be in another city, on another continent. In the last month, dozens of terror attacks have killed...
I am not sure whether to blame the natural skepticism that comes with biological age or simply the factual legacy of watching many decades of failed...
When I followed the news Friday morning of the shooting and killing of five police officers in Dallas, Texas, following repeated police killings of young...
A British court decision earlier this week marks an important advance for those who fight for justice, Palestinian rights and a peaceful resolution of the...
Attacks by Daesh (ISIS) terrorists in Jordan and Lebanon in the past week reflect a troubling new angle to that group’s strategy as its heartland in northern...
A fascinating little drama taking place in Egypt now is worth watching for what it might reveal about the popularity of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah...
United States policies in the Middle East have occasionally enjoyed a unified sense of purpose among government agencies in Washington and broad support among...
Thank goodness for calm, collected scholars who can be counted on to provide some verifiable facts during moments like today, when anger, fear and other gut...
I have been in the United States this week since the attack against Israeli civilians in a Tel Aviv food market Wednesday evening, and have been fascinated by...
Ever since the so-called “Islamic State” proclaimed itself two years ago in Raqqa and Mosul as the nucleus of a modern Islamic caliphate, it has told its...
If the Palestine issue is a political football that others in the Arab world, Israel and further afield use mainly to benefit themselves, then we witness...
What is the value of law? What are the consequences of applying some laws selectively, by punishing some law-breakers and ignoring others? How does or should...
The decision last week by Tunisia’s successful Ennahda Party to separate its political from its religious functions strikes me as one of the most important...
Two years or so since Daesh (ISIS) declared itself and its caliphate in parts of northern Syria and Iraq, we are now finally approaching the moment when...