Iran’s SCO Entry Could Complicate U.S.-Israeli Strategic Options

Iran’s impending entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Eurasian bloc that China and Russia lead, has great potential to limit U.S., Israeli and Western leeway in confronting Tehran’s nuclear and hegemonic aspirations, sponsorship of international terrorism and efforts at regional de-stabilization. Iran’s SCO entry comes as the Institute for Science and International Security, …

Cuba Protests Could Presage Brighter Regional Future

As video of protests in Havana circulates on social media, many are wondering about Cuba’s future. Why now? What’s changed for everyday Cubans? And, most importantly, what do the protests mean for the island nation’s communist government and its grip on power? “The basic economic situation is what’s pushing people to go out and raise …

Western Silence as Gaza Summer Camps Train Future Terrorists

The teenage boys of Gaza, some of whom are still in junior high, are learning how to shoot guns, launch anti-tank missiles and protect themselves while peering around walls. The boys are attending summer camp, but it’s not the swimming and softball, hiking and cookouts that many of us fondly recall. It’s camp as run …

Biden Faces an Evolving Middle East

The news that Bahrain’s foreign minister is meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel this week highlights the predicament that president elect Joe Biden faces in the Middle East: he wants to restore a U.S. approach to the region that relies on increasingly out-of-date assumptions. For starters, Biden promises to rejoin the U.S.-led global …

U.S. Needs a Broad Response to China-Iran Moves

A new China-Iran economic and military agreement and this fall’s expiration of the global arms embargo on Iran could dramatically upend international relations by expanding China’s global reach, empowering Iran to threaten America’s regional allies, undercutting U.S. efforts to pressure both nations and further destabilizing the Middle East. From their agreement—which both nations plan to …