MEF’s 2025 gathering in Washington brought together nearly 200 policy experts, diplomats, and thought leaders under the theme “Statecraft Reimagined.” The discussions yielded concrete policy proposals that promise to influence America’s Middle East strategy in the coming years.


Our panels assembled an exceptional range of expertise. Sessions explored topics including the westward migration of Islamist movements, Syria’s post-Assad landscape, and how American taxpayer funds inadvertently support adversaries. The caliber of participation—including Congressman Randy Fine, diplomats from Oman, the Netherlands, France, Greece, and Cyprus, alongside senior intelligence officials—underscored MEF’s distinctive role in translating research into policy action.

Launched in 2006, Islamist Watch is a project of the Middle East Forum. We work to combat the ideas and institutions of lawful Islamism in the United States and throughout the West. Arguing that “radical Islam is the problem, moderate Islam is the solution,” we seek to expose the Islamist organizations that currently dominate the debate, while identifying and promoting the work of moderate Muslims.

CAMPUS WATCH, a project of the Middle East Forum, reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America with an aim to improving them. The project mainly addresses five problems: analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students. Campus Watch fully respects the freedom of speech of those it debates while insisting on its own freedom to comment on their words and deeds.