An Operational Concept for Reopening the Strait of Hormuz Without a Ground Campaign
Classical Strategy and the Path from Air Campaign to Iranian Liberation
Blocking Allied Operations While the War Is Live Hands Adversaries a Tactical Opening at Europe’s Most Sensitive Energy and Migration Chokepoint
Iran Has Launched Dozens of Missile Strikes Against Energy Infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Even Iraq
Some Iranian Observers Say the Islamic Republic and Its Supporters Still Believe the Current War Is Temporary
Spain’s Pedro Sánchez Should Make Good on His Anti-Colonial Rhetoric and End Its Occupation in Africa
Since the 1980s, Iran’s Influence Networks Have Embedded Tehran Within the Hemisphere’s Political and Informational Terrain
Tebboune’s New Laws Tighten Political Control While Presenting Themselves as Modernization
Not All Alawite Experiences on the Coast Are Uniformly Bad. Some Alawite Localities Have Enjoyed an Overall Better Relation with the New Authorities
When Turkish Networks Move Money, Weapons, People and Narcotics Across Borders, They Export Not Only Violence but Also the Institutional Weaknesses and Culture of Impunity
Washington Has Now Connected the Entire Transnational Network and Exposed Its Operational Core in Khartoum
Mojtaba Is a Fraud Under the Islamic Republic’s Constitution, Which Sets ‘Grand Ayatollah’ as the Full Rank for the Supreme Leader
Politicking Had a Place When Regime Change in Iran Was a Distant Dream, but Game-Playing Is Counterproductive as Its Reality Looms
Trump Should Direct the U.S. Military to Hunt Down Regime Officials in Iran’s de Facto Wartime Capital
Spotlight on War with Iran
The Iranian Navy and Air Force are effectively non-existent. The new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen since the start of the war. Basij checkpoints are being attacked by drones.
But the Islamic Republic is far from finished. The Strait of Hormuz has seen tankers attacked and oil flow is critical. What is the path to an end that is worth the dangers? MEF fellows and experts weigh in on all of this.
But the Islamic Republic is far from finished. The Strait of Hormuz has seen tankers attacked and oil flow is critical. What is the path to an end that is worth the dangers? MEF fellows and experts weigh in on all of this.
As unrest spreads across Iran, the regime and the opposition both face narrowing choices.
Iran’s Kurdish Armed Groups Remain Too Fragmented, Cautious and Constrained to Shape the War’s Outcome.
Sustained Strikes and the Removal of Senior Islamic Republic Figures Raise Questions About the Regime’s Durability
An Operational Concept for Reopening the Strait of Hormuz Without a Ground Campaign
Classical Strategy and the Path from Air Campaign to Iranian Liberation
Spotlight on the Middle East
The entire region is affected by the conflict with Iran, but there are many other vital issues being covered by MEF. New alliances are growing in the Eastern Mediterranean, Syrian in-fighting cools down and let’s not forget North Africa.
The turmoil makes predictions perilous, but it also presents opportunities for change. Will the conflict with Iran create the conditions for broader peace and prosperity?
The turmoil makes predictions perilous, but it also presents opportunities for change. Will the conflict with Iran create the conditions for broader peace and prosperity?
Cairo’s Regional Security No Longer Depends on Gulf Symbolism but on Eastern Mediterranean Energy Alignment
Behind Official Merger Language, Kobani Still Operates Under Kurdish Security Control
Iran’s Proxy Strategy Has Expanded Beyond the Levant and Now Threatens North Africa’s Strategic Balance
The Sánchez Regime Has Made Hostility to Jerusalem Its Policy and Israel Should Impose Consequences
When Turkish Networks Move Money, Weapons, People and Narcotics Across Borders, They Export Not Only Violence but Also the Institutional Weaknesses and Culture of Impunity
Middle East Quarterly - Current Issue
Founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes, MEQ is the Middle East Forum’s journal intended for both scholars and the educated public. Policymakers, opinion-makers, academics, and journalists write for and read the Quarterly, which is known for exclusive interviews, in-depth historical articles, and book reviews on subjects ranging from archaeology to politics and on countries from Morocco to Iran.
Spring 2026 Volume 33: Number 2
Spring 2026 Volume 33: Number 2
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MEF Identified Members of the Assad Family Involved in Drug Operations, Creating a Family Enterprise That Controlled All Aspects of the Trade -
Campus Watch, a Project of the Middle East Forum, Critiques Middle East Studies in North American Universities -
Badar Khan Suri, a Fellow at Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Has Been Arrested and Faces Deportation Proceedings -
Rasool Is Entrenched in American Islamist Organizations, with Close Ties to the Virginia-Based Saar Network
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The American President Eyed Syria as a Potential Addition to the Abraham Accords with the Aim of Normalizing Relations with Israel -
The Founding Fathers Wrote Their Words in the Milieu of the Judeo-Christian Biblical Heritage That Bound the Nation as One -
Israel’s ‘War of Necessity’ Was Launched amid the National Trauma of October 7 -
The Evangelical Emphasis on the Bible as a ‘Central Organizing Principle’ and Its Practice of Proselytizing Clash with Islam
Middle East Forum Observer
Founded in 2024, the Observer provides rapid analysis on leading Middle East developments, from Marrakech to Mashhad and the Bab el-Mandeb to the Black Sea.
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.
Antisemitism
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Lawsuit Opening Salvo Against Funders of Extremism? -
Catholic Clergy Make Ill-Founded Accusations of Genocide Against Israel, While Promoting Conditions That Would Guarantee Israeli Genocide -
There Is Not Much Freedom of Speech in Gaza, and Europe Is Not Doing Much Better -
Qatar’s Role as a Mediator Is Meant Less to Resolve Conflict and More to Win Immunity and Escape Accountability for Action
Gaza
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An Internal Failure Amplified External Efforts to Constrain Israel’s Operational Freedom During Wartime -
The Essential Question Facing Gaza—the Continued Existence or the Removal of an Armed and Hostile Islamist Sovereignty in the Area—Remains Unresolved -
A U.N. Resolution on Gaza Concedes That a State of Palestine Was Not Legally Worthy of Recognition by France and Britain -
A Significant Difference Between the Position of Israel and That of Its Chief Ally, the United States, on the Way Forward Is Emerging
Islam
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White Women Were and Continue to Be Seen as Sexually Promiscuous by Nature — Essentially ‘Provoking’ Muslim Men Into Lusting After and Raping Them -
The Student Newspaper Has Not Published a Story About the Firing of an Islamic Studies Professor Accused of Sexual Misconduct -
Last Year’s Sequence of Events Has Substantially Shifted the Strategic Balance of the Region -
ISIS’s January 2024 Call to Random Violence Explains the Deadly Logic Behind Recent Vehicular Terror Attacks in New Orleans and Germany.
Muslims in the US
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The Muslim Justice League Took a Page Out of the KKK’s Playbook and Deployed Masked Thugs to Harass a Reporter at Its Rally in Downtown Boston -
Columbia, Not Just a Campus Anymore, Has Turned into a Caliphate; Sinwar Could Make the Dean’s List -
Progressives Have Done a Better Job Advocating for Hamas than Many Islamist Organizations in the United States -
A Joint Podcast Series by the Middle East Forum and the American Jewish University
