Publications

This graph tracks cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19 relative to the total population in MENA countries between March 2020 and December 2022.

Graphs tracking the stringency of governmental public health measures against newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 in MENA countries from 2020 to 2022.

As of December 2022, over 42% of MENA’s population was fully vaccinated, compared to 32.5% of the global population.

A visualization that tracks cumulative deaths officially associated with COVID-19 in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries over the 2020-2022 period on a comparable per capita basis.

After decades of a unipolar world order, the return of great power competition has become a fact of global politics today. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) new Strategic Concept document, released in June 2022, clearly illustrates how the organization is preparing itself for a new international security environment defined by such a competition.

Egyptian foreign policy has undergone significant changes over the past half a century. After Gamal Abdel Nasser passed in 1970, Egypt’s pan-Arabist aspirations and ambitions came to an end. His successor, Anwar el-Sadat, re-oriented the country towards the West and made peace with Israel in 1979, which led to a decade-long suspension from the Arab League.

Civilian populations in the conflict-ridden countries of the Middle East and North Africa have undergone a radical transformation of their governing structures. In countries like Iraq, Syria, and Libya, these structures are increasingly dominated by unconventional security providers such as militias and paramilitary groups aligned with the state, creating complications for good governance and security sector reform (SSR).

Iraq was pushed to the brink of civil war in August following a series of tit-for-tat exchanges between Muqtada al-Sadr—head of Iraq’s most powerful socio-political movement (the Sadrist movement) and one of the country’s most powerful militia groups (Saraya Salam)—and a coalition of Iran-aligned parties and militias known as the Shiite Coordination Framework.

In early 2019, the hirak, a nationwide peaceful movement, called for the removal of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has undergone many Track II initiatives, with the aim of resolving, or at least alleviating, conflict.

Mirroring region-wide trends, Turkey has adopted a policy of bridge-building across the Middle East in recent years.

Over the past decade, GCC countries have faced growing challenges …