IN THIS ISSUE:
The Enduring Lessons of the Iraq Sanctions
[su_dropcap style="simple" size="4"]T[/su_dropcap]he economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations Security Council, from 1990 to 2003, may well lay claim to be the worst humanitarian catastrophe ever imposed in the name of global governance. The...
The Tragedies and Dilemmas of US Intervention in Northeast Syria
[su_dropcap style="simple" size="4"]A[/su_dropcap]t the very beginning of the Syrian uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Asad in 2011, and during the early stages of the slide into civil war, Washington made the serious miscalculation that the Asad...
Rethinking US Policy Toward Iran: A Forum
[su_dropcap style="simple" size="4"]W[/su_dropcap]hile US relations with Iran have been adversarial since the 1979 Islamic revolution, President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) in 2018 and his belligerent implementation of a “maximum...
Six Steps to Reform US Agricultural Policy in the Arab Region
[su_dropcap style="simple" size="4"]P[/su_dropcap]eople in the Arab region have long been hungry—for dignity, but also for food. Hunger is a social phenomenon: the “biological manifestation of underdevelopment,” in the words of Brazilian geographer Josué de Castro.[1]...
CURRENT ANALYSIS
Scholars, Spies and the Gulf Military Industrial Complex
A military-industrial complex is growing in the Gulf states. In May 2018, a British researcher Matt Hedges was arrested in the UAE and charged with espionage for researching this industry as a spy, not a scholar. His colleague Shana Marshall explains why.
The Imperious Rise of Gulf Capitalism
Hanieh’s book is valuable for anyone interested in understanding the growing power of Gulf monarchies across the Middle East.
Countering Christian Zionism in the Age of Trump
Behind President Trump’s fervent embrace of Israel are millions of Christian Zionists who believe that the establishment of a Jewish ethnostate in Palestine is a requirement for the fulfillment of end-times prophecies. But a growing movement of Christians is challenging this controversial theology.
LATEST ISSUES
FEATURED PRIMER
Primer: Palestine-Israel
Read the newest iteration of MERIP’s Palestine primer. Published in March 2025, and updated to reflect developments in the ten years since our previous primer, it provides an overview of key actors, organizations, historic events, political developments and diplomatic initiatives that have shaped the status and fate of Palestinians and the State of Israel from the late nineteenth century to the present.
