Blog Post

As the September deadline for the U.S. troop drawdown approaches, Iraq’s period of comfortable neutrality is ending, but the country’s policymakers should not rush into unsustainable alignments.

Small and medium enterprises are central to Gulf diversification efforts, but strong, well-integrated support systems, including national small business administrations and public credit guarantee schemes, are needed to help them thrive.

After U.S.-Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, Iran’s collective leadership has concluded that the best defense is a good offense.

The Gulf states want to reduce their dependence on expatriates without losing the professionals they still need for economic diversification. Pension reform is becoming part of that bargain.

The war between the United States and Iran revealed the vulnerability of static U.S. bases, while also showcasing Gulf Arab states’ capacity – bolstered with U.S. hardware and training – to intercept most Iranian strikes on their own, raising new questions about U.S.-Gulf security partnerships.

Saudi-Emirati public reconciliation, a result of hard-earned lessons about the difficulty of going it alone, bodes well for a region at war and under attack, but there are still issues left to resolve.

Wartime pressure has temporarily aligned the leadership’s overriding interest in regime survival, even as its members continue to differ over the costs, methods, and ultimate objectives of the war.

Hitting the systems that keep Gulf populations supplied with water and power is a threshold Iran now appears willing to cross.