Ever since it acquired Scud-B missiles after its cities suffered missile attacks during the 1980–88 Iran–Iraq War, Iran has viewed ballistic missiles as vital to its defence. Lacking a modern air force, Iran sees ballistic missiles, and increasingly land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs) and uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs), as one means of balancing power. The size and scope of Iran’s missile arsenal – the largest and most diverse in the region – reflects the priority Iran ...Read more >

A small army of top Israeli national security officials descended on Washington last week for their first in-person consultations with the Biden administration over its intention to return to the Iran nuclear deal. Israel is adamantly opposed to the agreement, arguing that in exchange for a pause in Tehran’s nuclear program, it virtually guarantees that Iran can become a nuclear-weapons threshold state by the time the deal expires in 2030, while immediately funneling billions of dollars ...Read more >

The U.S. has said remarkably little about how conditional its future plans to withdraw all forces in Afghanistan are on the success of the peace process, whether it will provide adequate support for Afghan military forces if the peace effort fails, or whether the U.S. plans to provide any security guarantees and military aid if a peace agreement is reached. So far, all that is clear is that the official total of U.S. military personnel has dropped from ...Read more >

President Donald J. Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights upends a half century of U.S. policy. The strategically important plateau has been widely considered under international law to be occupied territory since its 1967 seizure from Syria. In his proclamation, Trump cited security needs as paramount, though in practice Israeli control has not been challenged for ...Read more >

Hezbollah wields significant power in Lebanon, where it operates as both a Shiite political party and militant group. It opposes Israel and Western powers operating in the Middle East, and it functions as a proxy of Iran, its largest benefactor. The group has faced unprecedented scrutiny from the Lebanese public amid the country’s political and economic ...Read more >

The U.S. faces major challenges in its security relations with each state in the Middle East and North Africa as well as from nations outside the MENA region. It still is the dominant outside power in the region, but the security dynamics of the Middle East and North Africa have changed radically over the last decade and will continue to change for the foreseeable future. At the beginning of 2011, most MENA nations were at peace and seemed to be relatively stable. North African countries ...Read more >

The Asia-Pacific region is undergoing enormous change, fueled by rapid levels of economic growth and competition alongside deepening levels of regional and global integration, significant demographic and income shifts in key ...Read more >

Making predictions is a hazardous exercise however, it needs to be ventured. 2014 was particularly bleak for the Arab world but as the year ended there were increasing indications that the situation will steadily improve through ...Read more >

It now seems unlikely that the P5+1 countries of the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany can reach a comprehensive agreement with Iran by the end of November. ...Read more >

Recently there has been a lot of attention given to the “Possible Military Dimension” of the Iran Nuclear Program, in particular concerns over Iran’s ballistic missile program and its nuclear delivery ...Read more >