A great prize lies unclaimed by the United States and its allies: Lebanon. Ever since Hizballah’s deadly attack against the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, which killed 241 American service ...

Once NATO's most reluctant member, Turkey hosts this week's summit in Ankara as wars in Ukraine and Iran — and Erdoğan's ties to President Trump — make it one of the alliance's most indispensable.

At the recent NATO summit in Ankara, renewed US-Iran strikes and Turkey’s push to rejoin the F-35 stealth fighter program overshadowed the Alliance’s message of unity and a strong European pillar. MEI ...

This past June, I had the opportunity to visit Ukraine and see a bit of a war I heretofore had only read about. The contrasts with the Middle Eastern wars I had experienced were stunning, as was, in ...

Alex Vatanka is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute. He specializes in Middle Eastern regional security affairs with a particular focus on Iran. He was formerly a Senior Analyst at Jane’s ...

Founded in 1946, the Middle East Institute (MEI) is the leading Washington, DC-based institution focused solely on the Middle East, delivering non-partisan insights, analysis, and recommendations to ...

ERBIL, IRAQ — FEB. 28, 2026: An Iranian air attack targeting the US military base at Erbil International Airport in northern Iraq was intercepted by air defense systems on Saturday, Feb. 28, amid ...

The generous contributions of MEI members support our research, events, and programming, and advance our mission to promote greater understanding of the Middle East. Individual membership provides ...

There is a new and little noticed geostrategic alliance on the rise. India, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have had surface-level, transactional relations for a long time. However, last ...

This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests. Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and scholar, an Honorary Fellow at the National University ...

In his second term in office, President Donald Trump faces a Middle East undergoing multifaceted upheaval and an Islamic Republic of Iran currently in its weakest and most isolated position since the ...

This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests. Dr. Vincent Durac lectures in Middle East Politics at the School of Politics and International Relations in ...