The West is trying to lay the groundwork for gaining leverage over the current authorities in Damascus
It has been six months since the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [
1
] group led by Abu Mohammad al-Julani (now known as Ahmed al-Sharaa) seized power in Syria. Shortly before that, half a world away, Donald Trump had won the U.S. presidential election, and all eyes turned to see what his foreign policy would look like. Nobody was watching more closely than Syria’s new authorities, who were well aware that...
Report No. 99 / 2025
Report No. 99 / 2025
The following report focuses on the Middle Eastern policies of extra-regional actors and their transformation in changing conditions. It concentrates on studying the strategies pursued by Russia, the U.S., the EU, China and India in the Middle East. The report also examines how Middle Eastern countries perceive extra-regional actors as they aspire to build pragmatic and balanced relationships with external partners.
Extra-Regional Actors in the Middle East...
... Russian soul.
Regardless of this, Russia has economic and geopolitical interests in securing access to the Black Sea. For the USA, Ukraine also plays a key geopolitical role in ensuring its supremacy in Eurasia, as Zbigniew Brzezinski explained in his ... ... prevented an urgently needed harmony in Ukraine.
However the conflict ends, Ukraine is still a long way from becoming a pluralistic society, which it needs to be in order to secure peace in the long term. The aim must be to integrate the Russians living in Ukraine,...
... and substance.
The nuclear program: compromise is possible, surrender is not
Ivan Bocharov:
The Middle East Dichotomy
One of the key issues in the Iran–U.S. negotiations remains the future of the Iranian nuclear program. Despite years of mutual accusations and broken trust, Tehran appears open to tactical compromises but not to surrender. According to sources within Iranian political circles, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
has agreed
to discussions on all parameters of the nuclear program, including ...
... the most radical supporters have managed to destabilize the system. While some tightening of the existing order under wartime conditions was inevitable, the system has avoided sliding into a totalitarian model with excessive and demotivating control. Society, too, has shown resilience to extreme conditions. Initial confusion quickly gave way to adaptation. The high human cost of military actions and economic challenges, including inflation, have not led to any disintegrative processes. Society remains ...
... Fatigue from prolonged military action, frustration with losses, and disillusionment with Western partners are taking their toll. Society has yet to grapple with the full impact of post-traumatic stress disorder. While cooperation with the West has opened ... ... currently unthinkable within the context of the past three years and the broader period since 2014. Domestically, it would risk accusations of treason, sanctions, and repression. The image of Russia as an eternal enemy is deeply ingrained in Ukrainian media ...
... candidate) and the Republican candidate (almost certainly Trump) in the presidential election is not solely political but fundamentally about values: a clash of ideological trends, worldviews, and ultimately conceptions of human nature, one’s place in society, and one’s goals and responsibilities.
The phenomenon of Donald Trump’s popularity, which represents the hopes of the conservative segment of the American electorate, has been the subject of numerous academic studies. Trump is characterized ...
..., and this interaction is yielding some positive results. In February 2024, head of Uzbekistan’s State Security Service Abdusalom Azizov visited Kabul—a sign of high-level cooperation. The information provided by Afghanistan’s intelligence directorate ... ... not only as ideological adversaries but also as a foreign and alien movement and political phenomenon that could plunge Afghan society into another catastrophe. This has paved the way for cooperation in counterterrorism efforts.
In August 2021, the Taliban’s ...
... Tayyip Erdogan does in Syria and Libya. But repeating the experience of the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s, with hundreds of thousands killed and millions wounded, is now a no-go: Middle Eastern societies have changed too much over the past 40 years, and ... ... victory of the only “reformist” candidate, Masoud Pezeshkian, in the recent presidential election is a clear signal from society to the leadership of the Islamic Republic that people want peace, stability and economic development, rather than new ...
... the Magnificent. And here comes 2003... Perhaps, history is the queen of all sciences after all?
The war in Iraq (or the Third Gulf War) was unleashed in 2003 by the international coalition forces led by the United States, which numbered about 250 thousand troops. This led to the
overthrow
of President Saddam Hussein. Along with him, the Iraqi branch of the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (ASRP/Ba’ath) lost its influence. There was little honor in the war per se. The Iraqi army often surrendered ...
