Omer Aslan | 07 December 2020 | TR
For the last two years, several members of the League of Arab States (LAS) have taken incremental steps to bring Syria back under the LAS tent. Oman never cut diplomatic ties with Syria, and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain reopened their embassies in Damascus. Several other Arab states such as Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, and Lebanon have been calling for Syria’s return to the League
Adem Yilmaz | 04 December 2020
Major General Qasem Soleimani, the Commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC-QF), was a figure of national resilience in Iran against four decades of U.S. pressure. Soleimani had an outsized role
Al Sharq Strategic Research | 23 November 2020 | AR | TR
For four years, the Trump administration’s policies towards the Middle East and North Africa region has brought more uncertainty and instability to an already unstable region. Approaching the highly complicated regional disputes within the narrow lens of arms deals or appeasing ultra-conservative political bases has had serious consequences. They have messed with the international principles of solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, created an unprecedented record of human rights violations and political repression, and saw the flaring up of the regional armed confrontations, to mention but few.
Leonid M. Issaev 
Andrei Zakharov | 05 November 2020
The Republic of Yemen, the current borders of which were carved in 1990, was the embodiment of the aspiration of two formerly existing Yemeni states, the Northern and the Southern, for political unity with the preservation of regional specificity. Nevertheless, the Civil War in 1994
Can Kasapoglu | 02 November 2020 | AR | TR
Amidst the Mediterranean turmoil, the Turkish Navy stands in the middle of current political-military affairs. In league with Turkey's burgeoning technological and industrial defense base, the navy has been acquiring new capabilities. Furthermore, Turkey's sea-power deterrent has been gaining a new geopolitical horizon through the widely-debated Blue Homeland concept. This brief focuses on the main pillars and trajectory of the Turkish Navy's transformation through a strategic lens
Mehmet Emin Cengiz | 28 October 2020 | TR
The Democratic Union Party (PYD) has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries in the Syrian war, triggered by the Arab Spring. Since its inception in 2003 until 2011, the party had not found the chance of being a significant actor in the Syrian political theatre. However, the Syrian war eruption and the rise of ISIS opened a new chapter for the PYD and its military wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Furkan Alperen Sonkaya | 27 October 2020
Although Libya’s armed rebellion was successful in toppling down the autocratic regime of Muammar Gaddafi, it failed to secure a peaceful transition of power or maintain stability and unity in the country. The emergence of two rival administrations in 2014, the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli and the Tobruk administration with the House of Representatives (HoR), paved the way for a multi-actor civil war across the country.
Thembisa Fakude | 19 October 2020
The recent announcement by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain to normalise relation with Israel did not come as a surprise. It has been expected for a long time by observers of the [...]
Osama Abo Zayd | 19 October 2020 | AR | TR
Over the years, Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist militant group involved in the Syrian Civil War, has developed methods and tools to preserve itself and its capabilities at a time when most of its competitors have collapsed or lost the bulk of their power and influence.
Larbi Sadiki | 07 October 2020 | AR | TR
Under the “Trump Deal”, the recent brand of normalization of one-Arab-state-at-a-time with Israel has neglected issues of Palestinian justice and right to statehood. This paper argues that these glaring omissions,
