Middle East PolicyPub Date : 2026-03-31Epub Date: 2025-10-26DOI: 10.1111/mepo.70019
Mehmet Doğan Üçok
{"title":"Regime Change in Syria and the Emerging Israel-Turkey Conflict","authors":"Mehmet Doğan Üçok","doi":"10.1111/mepo.70019","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.70019","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the transformation of the eastern Mediterranean into a contested geopolitical arena following the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. Drawing on the framework of offensive realism, it explores the intensifying rivalry between Israel and Turkey, tracing how energy resources, maritime zones, and proxy alignments have evolved into a militarized contest for regional hegemony. Tel Aviv's efforts to assert dominance over the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Syria—supported by the United States—are interpreted by Ankara as part of an encirclement strategy, rooted not only in strategic interest but in the ideological construction of the “promised land.” This has driven Turkey to adopt a doctrine that integrates military operations, maritime law, and alliances to counter what it perceives as a reordering of the post-Assad Levant. The analysis contrasts this trajectory with liberal governance theories and argues that potential venues for collaboration, such as the East Mediterranean Gas Forum, are being instrumentalized for exclusionary purposes. By situating energy securitization, territorial expansion, and ideological projection within realism, the article reframes the eastern Mediterranean not as a zone of cooperation but as a hardened front in a contest for power stretching from Gaza to the Euphrates.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"33 1","pages":"87-101"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Middle East PolicyPub Date : 2026-03-31Epub Date: 2026-02-22DOI: 10.1111/mepo.70028
Oqab Jabali, Saqer Jabali
{"title":"‘I Thought I Would Die’: Testimony from Palestinian Women Jailed by Israel","authors":"Oqab Jabali, Saqer Jabali","doi":"10.1111/mepo.70028","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.70028","url":null,"abstract":"<p>After the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, Israel sharply expanded the arrest and detention of Palestinian women, resulting in allegations of violence, torture, and enforced disappearance. This study explores the experiences of 50 formerly imprisoned Palestinian women, drawing on their own words and reports by human-rights organizations. Many interviewees describe beatings, strip searches, solitary confinement, and denial of medical care, often in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions with little access to legal support. Pregnant women and minors were especially vulnerable. Many also report enduring trauma, stigma, and economic hardship following their release. The findings suggest that Israel's carceral practices involve the use of gender-based violence as a tool of domination, which may constitute violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention and other international laws. The authors call for global action to ensure accountability, protect detainees’ rights, and secure the release of all Palestinian female prisoners. Reforms are required to prevent any further Israeli violations as the Gaza war ceasefire slowly takes hold.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"33 1","pages":"3-20"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mepo.70028","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Middle East PolicyPub Date : 2026-03-31Epub Date: 2026-02-18DOI: 10.1111/mepo.70029
Havva Yavuz
{"title":"Jerusalem and the Unresolved Question of Sovereignty","authors":"Havva Yavuz","doi":"10.1111/mepo.70029","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.70029","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The de facto annexation of East Jerusalem has advanced incrementally through a legal-administrative architecture that includes land registration, zoning, and permitting; residency rules; and redesign of municipal boundaries. These measures affect how everyday rights like movement, worship, development, and residence are controlled. Crucially, they will determine whether the Old City and its surrounding areas can function as the capital of a future Palestinian state. This article evaluates three policy levers that could curb the takeover of East Jerusalem: accountability through the International Criminal Court, complemented by universal-jurisdiction filings; targeted, reversible sanctions on orchestrators of settlement expansion and violence; and a reinforced custodianship/monitoring regime for holy sites. The piece further analyzes the feasibility of each lever and specifies measurable benchmarks, such as charging and cooperation indicators for accountability; listing, licensing, and compliance actions for sanctions; and access parity, incident reporting, and third-party audit cycles for custodianship. The examination thus shifts the focus from rhetorical support for Palestinian autonomy to the enforceable rollback of East Jerusalem's occupation.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"33 1","pages":"21-35"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Perils of Nuclear Talks After the US-Israel War on Iran","authors":"Banafsheh Keynoush","doi":"10.1111/mepo.70011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.70011","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In June 2025, Israel bombed Iranian nuclear facilities, military commanders and scientists, and civilian areas, with assistance from the United States—Washington's first foray into conventional warfare against the Islamic Republic. This triggered debates in Iran about the merits of a weapons-grade atomic program. This study contends that Iranian elites have historically sought to maintain a fluid scheme that lacks easily enforceable nonproliferation parameters, using negotiations and the threat of conflict to buy time and build up the nuclear program. Despite setbacks from the June war, Tehran is continuing this strategy and holding onto power against pressure from the United States. The article examines Iran's moves since the war and its demands in the early stages of revived negotiations. It then probes the history of the nuclear crisis to determine lessons that should inform future talks. Ultimately, though this is unlikely, peaceful ties will require Washington to rebalance its approach. The Trump administration and its successors will have to consider incentives for Iran's elites to channel their preference for regime survival into a greater openness toward the West. Otherwise, US-Iran relations will remain conflictual.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"32 3","pages":"36-50"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mepo.70011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145272835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The June 2025 Israeli War: Iran's Assessment and Regional Consequences","authors":"Ali Bagheri Dolatabadi","doi":"10.1111/mepo.70008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.70008","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In June 2025, Iran and Israel engaged in their first direct war. Unlike the two confrontations of the previous year, this conflict began with an Israeli attack on Iranian territory. The intensity and duration of the fighting, and the types of weapons used, were unprecedented and unpredictable. Both sides claimed victory: Israel and the United States cited a setback of Iran's nuclear program by at least one year, as well as uncertainty over whether it will ever succeed. Iran took pride in its ability to strike Israeli military bases and research centers, despite the multilayered air-defense systems and the assistance Israel received from its allies. The situation remains fragile, as no peace agreement, or even ceasefire, has been signed, and both sides are preparing for the next round. What they once pursued covertly will likely unfold far more transparently in the future, with consequences for both countries, the broader region, and the world. This article analyzes the causes, objectives, and consequences of the war, drawing on first-hand sources, including official reports published in Iranian media and press outlets. Interviews with political, security, military, and technical experts, plus confidential government sources, are used to critically assess these reports.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"32 3","pages":"16-35"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mepo.70008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145272068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective By Gilbert Achcar. University of California Press, 2025. 256 pages. $22.95, paper.Road to October 7: A Brief History of Palestinian Islamism By Erik Skare. Verso, 2025. 240 pages. $24.95, paper.","authors":"A.R. Joyce","doi":"10.1111/mepo.70010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.70010","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"32 3","pages":"163-169"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145272069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"RETRACTION: Turkey's Hydropolitics: Building Order in the Middle East","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/mepo.70003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.70003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><b>RETRACTION</b>: S. Hamidi and E. Mozdkhah, “Turkey's Hydropolitics: Building Order in the Middle East,” <i>Middle East Policy </i>30, no. 1 (2023): 36–47, https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.12671.</p><p>The above article, published online on 2 March 2023 in Wiley Online Library (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/), has been retracted by agreement between the journal editor, A.R. Joyce; The Middle East Policy Council; and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The retraction has been agreed due to unattributed overlap between this article and a Farsi-language article published in <i>Iran—Water Resources Research</i> [Ghoreishi et al. (2020): https://www.iwrr.ir/article_105732.html]. The authors were not able to provide a reasonable explanation for the significant text overlap. Therefore, the article must be retracted. The authors disagree with this decision.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"32 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mepo.70003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145271936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Arab-Israeli Gas Diplomacy: Interdependence and a Path Toward Peace?","authors":"Gawdat Bahgat","doi":"10.1111/mepo.70006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.70006","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Since the early 2000s, major natural gas discoveries in the Levant Basin—the Tamar and Leviathan fields in Israel, and Zohr in Egypt—have substantially changed the eastern Mediterranean's energy landscape. While the growing interdependence among regional countries has promised integration and “economic peace,” it has not prevented wars between Israel and both Gaza and Lebanon. This article examines gas diplomacy between Israel and its Arab neighbors: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Gaza. It argues that we must recognize the limits of gas diplomacy, but its significance should not be overlooked or underestimated. While armed conflict persists, interdependence has arguably prevented escalation in some cases and contributed to diplomatic efforts, as well. The article further shows that nuclear power, projected to meet a large share of the region's growing demand for electricity and water desalination, will require cooperation among Israeli and Arab governments.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"32 3","pages":"64-78"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145271772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dehumanization of Disregard: The Case of Gaza","authors":"Yagil Levy","doi":"10.1111/mepo.70004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.70004","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The prevalent assumption in media discourse suggests that, due to an intelligence failure and the perception of Hamas's being effectively deterred, Israel was unexpectedly attacked on October 7, 2023. This study, by contrast, delves into the concept of “dehumanization of disregard” within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, drawing from Judith Butler's notion of “ungrievable death.” It posits that Israeli attitudes toward the Gazan population are marked by indifference and neglect. This passive dehumanization coexists with, yet is distinct from, a more active form that overtly degrades Palestinian inhabitants within the human hierarchy. The article contends that this dehumanization of disregard, which fails to recognize the Gazan population, almost inevitably leads to a denial of their capacity to make a difference and challenge the indirect Israeli control over the Strip. The study examines how this disregard became institutionalized in Israel's approach to Gaza and contributed to the October 7 catastrophe. It concludes that acknowledging Palestinian humanity is not merely a security imperative but an essential precondition for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and advancing toward a sustainable political settlement.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"32 3","pages":"3-15"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mepo.70004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145272772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"After Assad: How Russia Is Losing the Middle East","authors":"Namig Abbasov, Emil A. Souleimanov","doi":"10.1111/mepo.70005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.70005","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Russia's military and diplomatic victories in Syria once appeared to cement its status as a dominant power in the Middle East. However, the swift collapse of the Assad regime exposed cracks in Moscow's regional and global credibility. Our analysis reveals that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's downfall delivers a triple blow—strategic, reputational, and domestic. Strategically, it dismantles Russia's foothold in the Middle East, jeopardizing its access to facilities and weakening its ability to challenge Western influence. Reputationally, Russia's failure to protect a key ally has damaged its image as a reliable partner and raises doubts among regional actors about its ability to provide security and safeguard friendly regimes. Domestically, Assad's ouster undermines the foundation of President Vladimir Putin's legitimacy, which relies in part on asserting Russia's international standing. This loss, compounded by the ongoing war in Ukraine, international sanctions, and resource limitations, weakens Russia's ability to maintain its presence and power in the Middle East, further demonstrated by its inability to support Iran as it faced attacks by Israel and the United States. The collapse of the Assad regime thus signals a decisive shift, likely relegating Russia to a marginal role in regional geopolitics.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"32 3","pages":"109-122"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mepo.70005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145272762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}