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This is Abu Aardvark's MENA Academy, a newsletter about Everything MENA Political Science and Politics.
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Iran, the Gulf, and America's Middle East
"Iran’s bombardment of its Gulf neighbors has inexorably dragged them into a war that they had desperately hoped to avoid. The potential entry of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia into direct war alongside Israel and the United States represents the first full-scale manifestation of America’
Some personal news
(For those who care. But what's a blog for if you can't share personal news?) First, as some of you may have seen, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation just announced their 2026 class of Distinguished Scholars. I am absolutely thrilled that they chose to support my
This Must Be The Podcast: Mohammed Hafez
In a provocative new article in the Middle East Journal, Mohammed Hafez argues that all threads of the Islamist project have failed, a collective exhaustion as complete as the post-1967 death of the pan-Arabist project. Muslim Brotherhood style movements such as those in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia that contested elections,
What if it works?
The Trump administration has been steadily assembling a vast armada of airpower in the Gulf, ostensibly to apply pressure on Iran during negotiations. While the administration has been urging Iranian leaders to take a deal, American public demands on Iran on nuclear enrichment, ballistic missiles, and regional allies seem like