For more than a generation, no region has drawn as much national security attention and angst than has the Middle East. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, and operations throughout the region raise thorny questions of domestic and international law. Numerous regional conflicts inevitably raise concerns about compliance with the law of armed conflict, and debates over policy have become inextricably linked with debates over the law.
Latest in Middle East and North Africa
In the fight against terrorism, victory should be defined as a continuous process of providing security and maintaining society’s core values in the face of terrorist threats.
The reapplication of U.S. secondary sanctions measures following the American withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal has been at the heart of current challenges facing the nuclear deal.
The odds are stacked against reform, but protesters have withstood tumultuous events and waves of repression.
The United States could start by clarifying its objectives.
Lebanon's new cabinet is in need of popular support, so it is taking on endemic corruption in the country. But in practice, this government’s anti-corruption slogans will be designed to mask an ugly witch hunt.
The ICC prosecutor’s determination of jurisdiction relies on a controversial and legally problematic recognition of Palestinian statehood.
The Omani ruler's role in regional politics will be difficult to fill.
The American drone strike last night that killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, is a seismic event in U.S.-Iranian relations—and for the broader Middle East. We put together an emergency podcast, drawing on the resources of both Lawfare and the Brookings Institution and reflecting the depth of the remarkable collaboration between the two.
In Iraq, the Trump administration’s military response to a fatal attack on U.S. personnel has triggered a new political crisis. The U.S.-Iraq relationship may not escape unscathed.
Two judgments handed down just days apart—one by the Israeli Supreme Court and the other by the European Court of Justice—serve to highlight a growing jurisprudential divide between Israeli and international courts on the status of Israeli settlements in the West Bank