Research Library

Will Biden’s strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen prove effective? Fellow Joe Barnes lays out challenges facing the president as the Israel-Hamas war escalates.

Hama's Oct. 7 attack on Israel threatens to undermine a key pillar of Saudi Arabia’s foreign and domestic agenda: the “de-risking” of the region, writes fellow Kristian Coates Ulrichsen.

Leveraging a crash in oil revenue, the Saudi government has quickly imposed unprecedented changes to the way it raises cash by increasing taxes and slashing subsidies in ways Saudi citizens once considered unthinkable.

As the number of coronavirus cases rises in Iran, nearby countries are scrambling to prevent the disease from spreading across borders. Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.

With the implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement, many Gulf Cooperative Council states now openly wonder whether U.S. support can still be relied upon, given the speed with which the U.S. government has engaged Iran in negotiation and diplomacy since 2013. This incomprehension may lead to further instability in the Middle East as the Gulf States continue to take increasingly unilateral action in Yemen and other regional conflict zones, fellow for the Middle East Kristian Coates Ulrichsen writes.

The UN adopted new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the end of September 2015. Using data from the Arab Millennium Development Goals Report, research analyst Ariana Marnicio recommends the Arab world primarily focus on three SDGs to improve the lives of women

Tunisia is widely regarded as having one of the most liberal approaches to family law and women’s rights in the region. Yet for nearly 60 years of authoritarian rule — as women’s rights were championed in public discourse, in national legislation and on the international scene — the government did not hesitate to brutalize women through torture and other gross human rights violations, according to more than 15,000 testimonies recently collected by a Tunisian state commission.

The only women elected to Bahrain’s new parliament are all Shi’a. While the Shi’a community in Bahrain is often considered to be economically and politically marginalized from the regime, the winning female candidates are wealthy and linked professionally with the regime.

The deepening civil war in Yemen poses more challenges than solutions for Saudi Arabia, writes Middle East scholar Andrew Bowen.

Whether out of strategic calculations or due to attitude towards women, the outcome is the same: female candidates often do not follow the party route to political office in Bahrain.