This map shows the key players in the Middle East. For more on how Trump’s Middle East policy differs from that of Barack Obama, see Jack Thompson’s recent addition to the CSS Analyses in Security Policy series here. For more CSS charts, maps and graphics on proliferation, click here.
Category: Regional Stability

The article was originally published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) on 4 October 2018.
The signs are ominous—especially in Israel and its neighbours, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. Violence, both actual and rhetorical, has been escalating on all three fronts. Gaza could become the immediate flash point as the Palestinians’ ‘March of Return’, which began on 30 March, intensifies and Israeli retaliation becomes increasingly lethal.

This article was originally published by War on the Rocks on 25 September 2018.
When asked about President Donald Trump’s July 2018 visit to Europe, Henry Kissinger presciently noted, “I think Trump may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretenses.” In other words, for all the uproar surrounding the president’s personality, something bigger is going on, and Trump has come to personify it. Perhaps the biggest challenge is, therefore, to put words to this shifting ground and imagine its potential consequences.
This graphic charts changes in resilience (using the EU’s definition of resilience) of select EU member states from 2015 to 2017. For more on the role of resilience in contemporary deterrence efforts, see Tim Prior’s chapter for Strategic Trends 2018 here. For more CSS charts, maps and graphics on defense policy, click here.
Image courtesy of United Nations Photo/Flickr. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
This article was originally published by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) on 22 November 2017.
In the aftermath of the intervention by the military in Zimbabwe that led to yesterday’s resignation of President Robert Mugabe, there was a strong call from Zimbabweans for the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to not get involved.