Latest Articles about Middle East
Syrian Regime Loses Support from Circassian Community
President Bashar al-Assad is increasingly losing the support of the Circassian community many of whose members serve in his army and police. Such is the case of Yaser Ali Abaza, a Syrian Circassian lieutenant who, in a video posted to the Internet on December 29,... MORE
The Jamestown Foundation’s Top 11 Stories Of 2011
11. China's 2010 National Defense White Paper: An Assessment By Michael S. Chase, China Brief Despite this White Paper’s lack of detail on specific capabilities, Western analysts should study the perspectives offered in the biannual assessment. One reason is that this White Paper tells us... MORE
Relocating Syrian Circassians to the North Caucasus Poses Problems and Opportunities for Moscow
The end of 2011 saw a spike in violence in Kabardino-Balkaria. A series of high profile-killings of law enforcement agents followed the killings of several suspected insurgents. On December 31, the commander of a special police unit in Kabardino-Balkaria, Colonel Murat Shkhagumov, was gunned down... MORE
Yemen’s Transition: Who’s Who in the Yemeni Opposition
Now that Yemen’s Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) power transfer initiative has been signed and implementation is beginning, enormous political gains are being made by the fractured coalition of Islamists, Nasserites, and cold war-era socialists known as the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP). As per the GCC... MORE
Parsing China’s Policy Toward Iran
On November 8th, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report that said Iran appeared to be carrying out research activities “relevant to the development of a nuclear weapon” [1]. The report caused a temporary reemergence of the Iranian nuclear issue to the fore... MORE
The Turn to Armed Rebellion in Syria: The Rise of the Free Syrian Army
Tensions in the Levant remain at a fever pitch as the uprising against the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad presses ahead into its ninth month in the face of a relentless government crackdown and a rising body count Occurring on the back of the... MORE
Jihadists and Saudi Arabia in the Shadow of the Arab Spring
In the 1980s the Saudi Arabia-United States alliance supported the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in their battle against the Soviet Union. Hostility has since grown between al-Qaeda, which formed later and the Saudi regime. Hostilities started after the 1991 Gulf War when the Islamic opposition became... MORE
The Impossible Dream: Tehran Rethinks its Commitment to an Iranian-Built Aircraft Carrier
In late September, the Iranian navy announced it would build an aircraft carrier with the capacity to engage in defensive military operations in the Persian Gulf (Press TV September 28; Fars News, September 28), The statement came as the Iranian navy also announced the near... MORE
Hezbollah Risks Regional Credibility by Its Support for the Syrian Regime
In Syria, like no other country in the Middle East, the mass protest movement widely known as “the Arab Spring” could change the entire regional order if it resulted in toppling the regime. This possibility appears even clearer in the context of Syrian-Lebanese relations. For... MORE
A Comparative Look at the Islamists of the Egyptian and Tunisian Revolutions
The October 23 elections in Tunisia and the November 28 elections in Egypt are perhaps the first indicators of the health of politics and society after the Arab revolutions that exploded in early 2011. The elections were expected to be the beginning of a victory... MORE