Research Library

Mexico’s 2013 energy reform, which opened its hydrocarbon and electricity industries to private investors, increased the autonomy and independence of its regulatory commissions. However, recent decisions by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador now threaten these institutions, writes nonresident scholar Miriam Grunstein.

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.

Fellow Kelsey Norman examines the U.S. refugee resettlement system, which the Trump administration is steadily dismantling.

Fellow Jorge Barro studies U.S. capital markets to provide a long-term outlook on the macroeconomic consequences of unbalanced debt growth.

When illegal workers use false documents to get a job in the U.S., their employers may complete the paperwork by deducting Social Security, federal, state and Medicare taxes from each paycheck. As of 2010, illegal workers have contributed $12 billion to the Social Security system alone. Such workers face poverty in old age, as they are barred from collecting retirement benefits because of their immigration status, and they have not accrued a pension in their home country.

The author reviews four scenarios that could develop as the dispute over Turkey's purchase of a Russian-made missile defense system continues.

In the near term, a ban on shale development in Mexico will have little impact since factors like limited infrastructure and access to water would likely stall progress in any case, the authors conclude. In the long-run, a ban may adversely affect efforts to diversify Mexico’s gas supply.

Even though the United States has long maintained a dominant presence in the Gulf, the Chinese social contract model may actually more applicable to the social and economic dynamics of GCC states than the Western orthodoxy of political liberalism and unbridled free market policies, the author argues in this issue brief.

Given the current dearth of women exercising Islamic authority, it may be assumed that for most of Islamic history, questions of religion and religious law were the near-exclusive domain of men. This brief discusses the various roles and contributions of women in Islam and religious scholarship and outlines recommendations for improving attitudes towards women in religious leadership in Muslim countries. This is one of 10 briefs in a series on pluralism and inclusion in the Middle East after the Arab Spring. The project is generously supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.