About the Middle East Forum

Founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes, the Middle East Forum promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western values from Middle Eastern threats. Through research, operational initiatives, and direct engagement with policymakers, MEF converts analysis into measurable outcomes, from eliminating billions in terror-linked funding to reshaping the security posture of allied governments.

MEF promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western values from Middle Eastern threats.

The region, with its profusion of dictatorships, radical ideologies, existential conflicts, corruption, political violence, and weapons of mass destruction remains a primary source of danger to the United States and its allies. The Forum meets these challenges through a combination of policy research, investigative intelligence, legislative strategy, and field operations designed to produce concrete results.

In the Middle East, we work to defeat radical Islam, advance Palestinian acceptance of Israel, develop strategies to counter the Iranian regime, and strengthen allied security architectures across the Eastern Mediterranean.

At home, the Forum exposes and combats the infrastructure of lawful Islamism, protects the freedoms of those who challenge it, holds academic institutions accountable to standards of integrity, and works to eliminate the flow of American tax dollars to organizations with ties to designated terrorist groups.

MEF provides strategic counsel and direct operational capability, not advocacy or apologetics.

The Middle East Forum achieves its mission through three integrated lines of effort.

Operations. MEF maintains specialized project teams, each targeting a defined threat. These teams conduct investigations, build legislative coalitions, deploy technology in denied environments, and produce the intelligence that drives federal enforcement actions, grant rescissions, and terrorist designations.

Policy and Legislation. Through sustained engagement with Congress, the executive branch, and allied governments, MEF drafts model legislation, delivers expert testimony, coordinates grassroots mobilization campaigns, and advises senior policymakers on counterterrorism, regional security, and institutional reform.

Research and Publishing. MEF’s publications, investigations, and media presence provide the analytical foundation for the Forum’s operational work. Staff deliver more than 300 media appearances per year across television, radio, and digital platforms.

MEF Action engages Congress, the executive branch, and the public to translate MEF research into federal policy. It builds legislative coalitions, mobilizes constituent action, and has driven the rescission of tens of millions of dollars in federal grants to organizations with documented ties to terrorist networks.

The Washington Project serves as MEF’s permanent interface with the federal government. It monitors and shapes U.S. policy across the full range of Middle Eastern issues, from counterterrorism funding and sanctions enforcement to allied security cooperation and institutional reform through direct engagement with Congress, executive branch agencies, and the national security establishment.

Islamist Watch investigates and exposes nonviolent Islamist networks operating within American institutions, from government agencies and charitable organizations to corporate boardrooms and campus groups. It tracks the financial infrastructure that sustains these networks and works with federal authorities to disrupt it.

Campus Watch monitors North American Middle East studies programs and holds universities accountable for the integrity of their scholarship, their compliance with federal disclosure requirements, and their obligations to students targeted by antisemitic harassment.

The Israel Victory Project advances the principle that the Arab-Israeli conflict will end only when Palestinians accept the permanence of the Jewish state. The project has helped establish this framework as an operational doctrine within the Israeli government and continues to advise allied policymakers on its implementation.

The Iran Freedom Project supports the Iranian people’s aspiration for secular, democratic self-governance by providing communications infrastructure, technical capability, and coordination support to civil society networks operating under one of the world’s most repressive regimes.

The Legal Project defends free public discussion of Islam and Islamism by supporting individuals and organizations targeted by predatory litigation and restrictive government policies.

Focus on Western Islamism is MEF’s investigative journalism initiative, producing in-depth exposés on the institutional capture strategies employed by Islamist networks across the Western world.

The Middle East Quarterly, founded in 1994 alongside the Forum itself, is MEF’s flagship peer-reviewed journal. It publishes original scholarship, policy analysis, and book reviews on the politics, economics, and security of the Middle East and Islamic world. The Quarterly is open access and all content is available without charge.

MEF Observer, founded in 2024, provides rapid, in-depth analysis of developments across the Middle East, from Marrakech to Mashhad and the Bab el-Mandeb to the Black Sea. Drawing on primary-language research and technical expertise in areas such as shipping, counterterrorism finance, and aircraft leasing, the Observer goes deeper than conventional opinion journalism. Its work is read and debated by policymakers and intelligence analysts across the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Like the Quarterly, MEF Observer is open access.

The Middle East Forum federal tax ID is 23-774-9796.