Research Library

Rapid urbanization and expansion of cities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has created new opportunities — along with environmental risks, lack of financial and natural resources, and social disparity. In a new issue brief, visiting research scholar Osamah Alsayegh explores how developing smart sustainable cities can bring social and economic benefits to the growing urban population.

Yemen’s Houthi have mounted a selective counter-shipping campaign in the Red Sea that has disrupted global trade between Asia and Europe. In a new issue brief, fellow Jim Krane describes how the attacks have triggered major shipping delays and expenses for firms based in countries friendly to Israel — effectively acting as economic sanctions and demonstrating the power of a non-state actor to undermine global norms around freedom of navigation.

Five key factors make the Biden administration’s attempts to expand the Abraham Accords in the Middle East likely to fail, writes nonresident fellow Omar Rahman. Instead, regional approaches like the restoration of Saudi-UAE diplomatic relations with Iran are now holding sway.

This issue brief highlights the potential collaboration between Arab countries and China in dealing with the global energy transition, and examines the energy transition from the perspectives of the world's largest economy (China) and richest hydrocarbon region (the Middle East).

Middle East fellow A.Kadir Yildirim reviews the varied responses of Islamist groups in the Middle East to the Biden presidency and suggests that, in most cases, their reactions were crafted to further their political — not religious — objectives.

Despite near-universal identification with the Palestinian cause and a visceral opposition to Israel, religious and Islamist responses to the Arab normalization agreements have ranged from sharply critical to relatively measured. What's behind this variation? Middle East fellow A.Kadir Yildirim explains.

Fellow Kristian Coates Ulrichsen examines where the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council currently stand in their outlook and approaches toward the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Since all parties involved will undoubtedly bear the consequences of Trump's highly problematic Peace to Prosperity plan, it is worth examining its framework and how Israelis, Palestinians and Arab states can navigate the negotiation process.

The authors explain why unilateral annexation of the West Bank by Israel would have pernicious and lasting consequences, leading Israel to an unprecedented crisis of delegitimization, enhanced demonization and isolation.

The authors examine the recent attacks on oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations to shed light on the current state of U.S.-Gulf strategic relations and the potential directions of its evolution in coming years.