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Foreign Policy Program

The Foreign Policy program contributes to the MENA region’s stability and security through the independent analysis of key foreign policy issues and challenges impacting the region.  

The program focuses on the region’s relations with its traditional partners such as the U.S. and Europe, as well as its evolving ties with other powers beyond the West. In particular, the program analyzes the MENA region’s growing political, economic and security relations with Asian countries, and more broadly the potential of advancing South-South understanding and cooperation. Overall, the program explores how ongoing shifts in regional and global order are shaping the region’s landscape and its internal and external dynamics.  

The program conducts research, convenes meetings, workshops, and forums, and engages with regional and international institutions to facilitate dialogue and cooperation.  

 

 

 

 

 

Areas of
Focus

MENA Foreign Policy and Security

  • Intra-regional relations and dynamics
  • The internal-external nexus of foreign policy making
  • Regional security architecture

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regional and Global Order

  • Relations with regional and global powers 
  • Great power competition   
  • Multilateralism  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geopolitics of the Mediterranean

  • Geopolitics and geo-economics of Asia-Middle East relations  
  • Gulf-Africa ties 
  • MENA – Latin America cooperation  

 

 

 

 

 

 

publications

September 24, 2025 Iran and Nuclear Opacity: Strategic Ambiguity, Retaliation, and Leverage

On July 2, 2025, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian formally enacted a law suspending Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The move, approved unanimously by Iran’s parliament and endorsed by the Guardian Council, effectively halted inspections and reporting on Iran’s nuclear program by the agency “until the security of the nuclear facilities is guaranteed.” The legislation marks the most significant shift in Iran’s nuclear posture since the country’s accession to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970.

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September 4, 2025 Reinvigorating Japan-GCC State Ties: The Case for Enhancing Top-Level Diplomacy

This policy note was completed by the author in August 2025 and therefore preceded the resignation of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in September.  Introduction Since the turn of the millennium, the politico-economic nexus between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and East Asia has significantly grown. Japan’s… Continue reading Foreign Policy Program

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June 5, 2025 Strategic Transactionalism: The Iran-Russia Partnership

On January 17, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty in Moscow. The agreement is aimed at strengthening bilateral relations over the next 20 years. Reportedly delayed by the death of Pezeshkian’s predecessor Ebrahim Raisi in May 2024 and disagreements over details, the treaty came at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions for both countries and was hailed by officials in Tehran and Moscow as a sign of deepening strategic alignment.

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May 15, 2025 Egypt and Türkiye: A Pragmatic Turn?

In February 2024, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Egypt for the first time since 2012, effectively ending more than a decade of political and diplomatic rupture between Egypt and Türkiye.

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April 13, 2025 Hezbollah’s Defeat and Iran’s Strategic Depth Doctrine

In 2024, Iran’s efforts to gain strategic depth in the Middle East suffered a series of crippling blows. For decades, the Islamic Republic extended patronage to Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and came to Bashar al-Assad’s aid from 2011 onwards to protect his regime in Syria against armed rebel groups. This strategy, initially aimed at expanding Iran’s regional influence, morphed into a network of deterrence to ward off U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iranian soil.

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March 13, 2025 Iran’s Foreign Policy Under Masoud Pezeshkian: Tendencies and Challenges

Iranian foreign policy is an important topic that has been extensively studied, given the Islamic Republic’s strategic location in the Middle East and the Asian continent. This issue brief draws its importance from a tense regional and international climate, which has bred growing uncertainty about the behavior of states and the orientations of governments. The need to track Iranian foreign policy also mounts with every political transformation following elections, particularly Iranian presidential elections.

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February 2, 2025 The Turkish-Greek Rapprochement: Time for European Engagement

This policy note argues that a Greek-Turkish thaw needs to be couched within a broader Türkiye-EU reset.

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October 31, 2024 Iraq’s Development Road Project: A Path to Prosperity or Instability?

Iraq’s Development Road Project constitutes a bold and much-needed initiative for a country that has been plagued by decades of civil war, ethnic and religious conflict, and geopolitical tensions. The $17 billion Development Road Project (hereafter referred to as Development Road or the Project) aims to transform Iraq into a transport hub by connecting its southern hinterlands to the Turkish border in the north,1 and act as a major driver of economic prosperity in both Iraq and the wider region.

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September 1, 2024 Beyond Mediation: Rethinking Peacebuilding in a Transnational Middle East

This issue brief examines the underlying challenges facing peacebuilding processes in the Middle East and the limitations of excluding non-state actors in these processes. This issue brief examines the underlying challenges facing peacebuilding processes in the Middle East and the limitations of excluding non-state actors in these processes.

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