This virtual briefing featured MEI Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow Tim Lenderking, who served most recently as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs at the US State Department and as ...

Founded in 1946, the Middle East Institute (MEI) is the leading Washington, DC-based institution focused solely on the Middle East, delivering non-partisan insights, analysis, and recommendations to ...

Timothy A. Lenderking joined Squire Patton Boggs as a Principal on June 1, 2026. Before joining the firm, Lenderking spent more than 32 years in the Foreign Service, specializing in the Middle East ...

Ambassador David Hale is a Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow at the Middle East Institute, after serving as a Foreign Service officer. He writes, speaks, and consults on US foreign policy, including ...

Ferid Belhaj is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South and Adjunct Professor at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. Previously, he was vice president for the Middle East and North ...

IMEC is designed to create a resilient supply chain network connecting South Asia (namely India), the Middle East, and Europe. It aims to transport goods, energy, and data, bypassing the Bab al-Mandab ...

As the U.S. administration considers whether to remove Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, understanding its nature, development, and ideology is essential to ...

This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests. Alexey Khlebnikov is an expert on the Middle East at the Russian International Affairs Council. He also used to ...

In November 2025, the United States sought and obtained approval for a United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR 2803) endorsing the formation of a Board of Peace (BoP) and International ...

The artificial intelligence (AI) era demands a fundamental rethinking of strategic infrastructure and international partnerships. Just as oil shaped the geopolitical landscape of the 20th century, ...

There is a new and little noticed geostrategic alliance on the rise. India, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have had surface-level, transactional relations for a long time. However, last ...

After 40 years, Syria once again has dual military rule, where the president and his brother are the highest authorities. In the early 1980s, Rifaat al-Assad, the brother of Hafez al-Assad, was the ...