Afkār is a publication of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, providing short-form analyses, insights, and perspectives on regional issues and developments from the Council's experts and outside contributors. Afkār is published in English and Arabic, and is edited by Omar H. Rahman.
A year after Assad’s fall, Syria is slowly emerging from immense devastation, making cautious but real progress toward stability despite major ongoing challenges.
The UN-mandated International Stabilization Force for Gaza is likely to entrench rather than alleviate Gaza’s crisis—offering a vague, one-sided framework that sustains Israel’s control, limits aid and reconstruction, and risks trapping the territory in perpetual political and humanitarian purgatory.
Lebanon’s externally driven push to disarm Hezbollah reveals a deeper crisis of sovereignty, as the state lacks the legitimacy, institutional capacity, and public trust necessary to reclaim monopoly over force without risking deeper instability and communal backlash.