Middle East
Regional security, proxy networks, escalation risk, and conflict diplomacy across the Middle East.
192 Dispatches
Has Netanyahu gone too far in Lebanon?
Donald Trump reportedly called Benjamin Netanyahu "f*cking crazy" in a heated phone call demanding a Lebanon ceasefire, as Israeli forces pushed north of the Litani River for the first time since 2000.
The Al-Rashid Incident: Tragic Accident or Deliberate Massacre in Gaza?
A forensic look at the February 29, 2024 aid-convoy deaths on Gaza's Al-Rashid Street, where over 100 died and accounts split between stampede and massacre.
America Has Bombed Iran: The Strikes, the Targets, and What Matters Now
U.S. B-2 bombers and submarines struck three Iranian nuclear sites on June 22, 2025. Here is what the attack hit, what it likely achieved, and what comes next.
America Isn't Ready for the Drone Warfare Era
Advanced militaries from Israel to the Gulf are burning through interceptors against cheap drones while Ukraine quietly becomes the world's counter-drone superpower.
America Wants Regime Change in Cuba: Inside the Blockade Squeezing Havana
A US energy blockade has plunged Cuba into nationwide blackouts as Washington pushes to topple Miguel Diaz-Canel after Venezuela and Iran.
Assad Loyalists Are Plotting a Comeback in Syria — and It's Falling Apart
Exiled Assad loyalists in Russia and Lebanon are competing to revive the old Syrian regime, but money, rivalry, and a stabilizing Syria are sinking the plot.
Attack of the Drones: How UAVs Are Reshaping Warfare
How cheap consumer quadcopters, Bayraktar and Shahed military drones, naval suicide boats, and unmanned ground vehicles are remaking the modern battlefield.
The Biggest Losers of the Iran War So Far: How the Conflict Spilled Past Iran's Borders
A region-by-region map of the Iran War's global fallout, from the Gulf's desalination crisis to India's fuel shock, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Asia's energy triage.
China's Invisible Navy: How a Fishing Fleet Became a Strategic Weapon in the East China Sea
Thousands of Chinese maritime militia vessels are massing in geometric formations off Shanghai, testing a force that could decide a Taiwan invasion while Washington looks elsewhere.
Conflicts to Watch in 2026: The World's Flashpoints Go Hot
A region-by-region forecast of 2026's most dangerous flashpoints, from Venezuela and Ecuador to Syria, the Horn of Africa, Sudan, Ukraine, and Taiwan.
Could Iran Become a Failed State? The War's Darkest Endgame
Why a collapsed Iran—divided among warlords, separatists, and proxies—may be the one war outcome the US and Israel could quietly live with.
The 21st Century's Deadliest Conflicts, Ranked by Death Toll
A continent-by-continent accounting of the 21st century's deadliest wars, ranked by direct death toll—from the Second Congo War to Ethiopia's Tigray War.