Russia’s Foreign and Security Policy in the Middle East: Entering the 2020s
(IAI Papers) As Russia has become a major external player in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region due to its military engagement in Syria since 2015, it has acted…
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Middle East
26 posts
Understanding Russia’s Intervention in Syria
(Rand) Russia’s 2015 military intervention in Syria’s civil war took many by surprise and raised questions about the potential for similar actions in other conflicts outside of post-Soviet Eurasia. The authors…
Russia Seeks to Exploit Escalating Troubles in the Middle East
(EDM) Russia tries to maintain a finger in every conflict in the Middle East, and President Vladimir Putin seeks to cultivate connections with various parties in multiple quarrels. Presently, however, the…
Russia’s Syria Policy: The Hard Path of Military Disengagement
(PONARS Policy Memo) On December 11, 2017, two and a half years after the start of Russia’s military campaign in Syria, President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the Hmeimim Air Base…
Declaring Victory in Syria, Putin Stands to Lose the Elusive Peace
(EDM) The meeting of three presidents—Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani—in Sochi last Wednesday (November 22), was supposed to mark a triumph for Russian foreign policy.…
Does the Middle East Have What it Takes to Progress?
(The Wire) (Co-authored with Jomo Kwame Sundaram) Many of the MENA countries have the needed pre-conditions to accelerate future economic growth – natural and human resources, strong state…
Could Russia Become a Serious Spoiler in the Middle East?
There were many new twists in the chain of Middle Eastern upheavals in 2014—from the escalation of civil war in Libya to the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) in…
Lyall: Airpower alone is insufficient, it makes ISIS work harder while buying time for the Iraqi Army
(Vox) During the State of the Union, President Obama made a big claim about the war against ISIS. "In Iraq and Syria," the President said, "American leadership — including our military…
Russia’s “Libya Debate”: Political Meanings and Repercussions
Russia’s reaction to the recent uprisings in the Middle East and Libya, in particular, was striking for two reasons. First, it unmasked multiple trends in the Kremlin’s foreign policy machinery.…
Yawning through the Arab Spring: Resilient Regimes in Central Asia and the Caucasus
In the weeks and months after the January 25 Revolution in Egypt, there was hope among commentators and opposition figures that some post-Soviet regimes might be equally susceptible to uprisings…