Persian Gulf

Sheikh Mohammed's wife has fled her home—and that may just be the beginning of his troubles.

Experts are skeptical that U.S. allies will get on board.

You might not think high-risk aggression is in Iran’s national interest, but leaders in Tehran have long disagreed.

Pompeo says no other country could have orchestrated the explosions with “such a high degree of sophistication.”

American officials are unhappy over the role of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE but say their hands are tied.

Benjamin Netanyahu is building ties with anti-Iran Arab leaders from Riyadh to Doha and betting that a peace deal is no longer a necessary prerequisite for normalizing diplomatic ties.

Saudi Arabia is fighting for a dangerous monopoly on Islamic thought.

The United States has a profound interest in helping Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman avoid his own worst impulses.

U.S. backing of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates could be enabling the disaster.

The showdown with Qatar is forcing all Middle Eastern countries to pick sides — and leaving two of them in the lurch.

Beijing is using the region's ongoing woes to solidify its own geopolitical agenda.

The $30 billion pledged toward reconstruction in Iraq was more than some expected, but still short of the total needed to rebuild the country.

But strategic dialogues don’t come cheap.

After eight years at Foreign Policy, here are the ten most popular Best Defense posts

Sen. Todd Young lifts a hold on the president’s pick for the next State Department legal advisor, after extracting a promise to review Saudi Arabia’s actions in Yemen.

In Haiti, it took seven years for the number of cholera cases to surpass 800,000. In Yemen, it’s taken several months.

The showdown in the Gulf shows no signs of ending. And there don’t seem to be any clear winners emerging.

The more Iran’s economy is bolstered by large-scale Western business deals, the harder it will be for the United States to deploy sanctions effectively.

The secretary of state will spend this week shoring up Kuwaiti efforts to end the GCC-Qatar showdown.

Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies have given Qatar until Monday to comply with a list of demands that are unreasonable at best. So where does it go from here?