Month: October 2024

Israel has lost its patience

As the first anniversary of the conflict along the Lebanon-Israel border approaches, what has been, for the most part, a simmering daily series of tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated at an alarming pace and brought the region perilously close to a full-scale war. Since September 16, Israel has removed the gloves to

Ukraine is slowly but steadily weakening Russia’s grip on Crimea

With international attention firmly fixed on the Russian army’s advances in eastern Ukraine and the Ukrainian invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, it is easy to overlook important developments taking place further south in Crimea. During 2024, Ukraine has achieved a number of strategic successes in and around the Russian-occupied peninsula that are worthy of closer

Kyiv’s allies should boost Ukraine’s ability to strike deep inside Russia

As the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches its third winter, the biggest topic of debate is the reluctance among Kyiv’s key partners to sanction long-range attacks inside Russia using Western weapons. According to skeptics in Washington DC and elsewhere, deep strikes would pose an unacceptable risk and could spark a far wider war. In

How American diplomacy can stabilize Lebanon—and the Middle East

The events of the past two weeks have witnessed an unprecedented degradation of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance. These developments present the Biden administration with more complex policy choices, but also some strategic opportunities. The reason why is because Israel is back at a point where it is not only deterring Iran, but dismantling key

What is Iran thinking now?

GET UP TO SPEED There’s a message in the missiles. Iran’s 180-missile barrage against Israel on Tuesday was largely ineffectual (though it did reportedly kill a Palestinian man in the West Bank) due to Israeli air defenses and US assistance. The assault was Tehran’s response to the assassination of top Hezbollah figures, including the group’s

Iran has a strategy for Israel. Now Israel needs one for Iran.

Since Hamas’s horrific October 7, 2023, assault on Israel, Iran has supported the group by orchestrating attacks on the Jewish state from Iran’s other Resistance Axis allies—Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shia militias in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen. The attacks against Israel during the past year represent the latest stage in Iran’s long-running war of