Crazy things happen in world politics all the time, yes, but there really aren't many scenes as surreal as Ahmed Sharaa – not so long ago a leading jihadist insurgent in Iraq and Syria and now Syria's president – triumphantly visiting the White House. But unlike a lot
My new article for Foreign Affairs (no paywall) argues that Israel's belief that its unchecked air campaign bombing Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran with impunity can be the path to regional hegemony is a dangerous fantasy. Hegemony requires more than just military dominance – and even the military dominance
Plus a full roundup from the MENA Academy and a new publication on gender and sexuality in Africa It's time for our regular roundup of research and articles from the MENA Academy and it's a really rich crop! But first, I'm delighted to share
It is difficult to share Trump’s optimism that the cease-fire has unlocked a broader transformation of the Middle East—or even that it will survive contact with reality on the ground in Gaza. I have a new article out in Foreign Policy (the first I've published there
Plus the latest from the MENA Academy Last week, the Trump White House announced a somewhat odd 20 point peace plan for Gaza; the language was so casual and the key points so vague that I at first assumed that it was just a public summary of the real document,
Plus another roundup from the MENA academy! For most of the first two years of Israel's devastating war on Gaza it avoided paying serious costs despite the mounting expert consensus that its campaign involved at the least major war crimes and potentially amounted to genocide. The historic rulings
Plus, major new surveys of Syrian public opinion and German academics. Britain, France, Canada and Portugal have now officially recognized the State of Palestine, in one of the first really major political consequences of Israel's horrific war on Gaza. At one level, this is a major symbolic moment,
The crackdown on Gaza protests paved the way to today’s full on assault on free speech. Abu Aardvark's MENA Academy depends on support from readers – become a core supporter today Join the MENA Academy The UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian
Early in my academic career I spent a lot of time in Jordan. I still remember the shock across the country and King Hussein’s palpable rage when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized an assassination attempt on Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Amman. This was only a few years after
The fall semester is now well underway, which has been exhilerating in some ways and exhausting in others. There's a lot going on in the Trump administration's ongoing war on higher education and a lot going on in the Middle East. For now, though, I want
Basically, it sucks. Last week, Tuft's Dan Drezner and my GW colleague Dave Karpf published really good pieces on what it's like to be, respectively, a dean of international affairs and a professor of political communications in the fall of 2025. Karpf observes that "Most
A little book review essay on a critical subject to launch the new semester. Thank you so much for subscribing to Abu Aardvark's Ghost and the MENA Academy (sounds like a killer indy band, right?). Moving from Substack to Ghost raised the costs of maintaining the blog considerably