Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Spot analysis from Carnegie scholars on events relating to the Middle East and North Africa.
The case of the Salafi groups underscores the complex evolution of cross-border exchange of religious ideas, with external powers able to grow influence amongst local communities.
One of the reasons Biden travelled to the Middle East is to counter the perception – and reality – that America was stepping back from the region because of domestic preoccupations and a foreign policy focused on Russia and China.
Let’s give the Biden administration the benefit of the doubt. Having deprioritized the Middle East for 16 months, the weeds grew.
A regular survey of experts on matters relating to Middle Eastern and North African politics and security.
The Saudis got everything they wanted and they controlled the narrative. They put out the fist bump photo within minutes
The tone of this meeting should have been very different.
It's true, one picture is worth 1000 words. In this case it's probably worth $1 million. The Saudi's basically got what they wanted and so did Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia will not become a democracy soon. But the United States can still engage with the monarchy constructively to make some gains on human rights, defend against authoritarianism and promote regional integration.
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