Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
In the aftermath of the devastating explosion at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, Mona Yacoubian, Senior Advisor to the Vice President of Middle East and Africa at the US Institute of Peace (USIP) and Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in...
On Tuesday, a U.N.-backed international tribunal in The Netherlands will announce its verdict in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a roadside bombing with 21 others as his convoy passed along the Beirut waterfront on...
Many Lebanese have tales to tell of how they survived the largest explosion in the country’s history, a port blast right in the heart of Beirut that left 6,000 injured, at least 200 dead and 300,000 homeless. Sometimes it was a door frame that blocked deadly...
The massive explosions that rocked Beirut this week are posing a test for how the U.S. and international community provide humanitarian assistance amid frustration with corruption among Lebanon’s political leaders. The country was already seen on the brink of...
While Americans are understandably preoccupied with multiple crises at home, a catastrophe is looming in Lebanon with significant implications for the United States. Roiled by a major debt crisis that has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and...
Syrians went to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak and a deepening economic crisis, as President Bashar al-Assad attempts to strengthen his political grip on the country after nearly a decade of war. The tightly controlled vote is...
You've heard a lot about COVID-19 and its effects in the United States, China and East Asia, Europe and Brazil. But what about the Middle East, South Asia and Africa? The virus is hitting these regions hard with profound political and national security consequences. To discuss it all...
Although the aim of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, known as the Caesar Act, is to sanction Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime, experts warn that it could deepen the suffering of Syrians without guaranteeing the fall of the Assad regime. Experts point...
New U.S. sanctions under the Caesar Act could compound the economic turmoil threatening to undo the Assad regime. Bashar al-Assad has been presiding over one of the Middle East’s most disastrous civil wars for nearly a decade. But his hold on Syria could slip due to...