Omphalos takes an interdisciplinary look at the contemporary Middle East, and is published jointly with two key partners: Academic Exchange, an educational non-profit that seeks to deepen understanding of Israel in the international academic community, and the Brookings Center for Middle East Policy and its blog, Markaz. Turmoil in today's Middle East today implicates a wide array of legal questions, bears huge costs for civilian populations, and poses diverse challenges to policymakers, activists, lawyers, and reformers. For the issues that Lawfare treats, the Middle East is a kind of omphalos.
The Gulf states want to keep the feud with Qatar in the family, Turkey and Iran consider what to do about Idlib, and Saudi Arabia cracks down at home but reaches out to Shiites in Iraq.
The Afghan government may be faltering, but the country's elites are too invested to let it fail. Here's how the United States can help them shore up their institutions.
Russia can’t wrangle its proxy in Syria to abide by its ceasefire agreements, Rouhani addresses Trump’s wavering commitment to the JCPOA in his inauguration speech, and Netanyahu could be indicted for corruption.
A Q&A about the international partnership-turned-rivalry that has shaped South Asia for decades.
Two weeks of protests appear to be ending in Jerusalem, France pushes through a ceasefire in Libya but peace remains elusive, Saudi Arabia and Qatar trade accusations of politicizing the pilgrimage to Mecca, and Lebanon’s Saad Hariri lobbies Washington.
How can Iraq prevent another relapse into terrorist and sectarian violence? This is what the research says.
Even if the number of attacks on the U.S. homeland remains low, the Islamic State and its subsequent chaos will threaten U.S. interests in the Middle East for years to come.
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