Jordan

How will the election's outcome shape the direction of U.S. Middle East policy, and how do America's friends in the region view the prospect of a new administration? Read or watch a conversation between leading Middle Eastern journalists and U.S. policy experts.

In addition to meeting the kingdom's urgent energy needs, the new natural gas deal should facilitate long-delayed efforts to develop Israel's offshore Leviathan field.

Embarrassing counterterrorism lapses and corruption revelations over the past year demonstrate that the kingdom's security cannot be taken for granted.

Washington will be pleased to see Riyadh bolstering another key regional ally, but the potential development of Jordan's nuclear sector could cause headaches, and the political costs for Amman remain unclear.

By continuing to pressure the old-guard Brotherhood and cultivating more friendly Islamist factions, the palace seems intent on pursuing an ambitious counterradicalization strategy, but it still hopes to avoid a major confrontation.

As the Assad coalition and the Islamic State turn their attention southward, Jordan and the thousands of displaced Syrians waiting outside its border face an increasingly perilous security situation.

The security of the Kurdistan Region-Iraq (KRI) depends more on agreements between Erbil and Kurdistan’s neighbors than the KRI’s own security and intelligence capabilities. Whenever the regional powers surrounding the KRI have suspected that their interests are at risk, they have not hesitated to put the KRI’s security and stability

The kingdom's energy security dilemmas need to be considered in the context of its diverse geopolitical challenges, including external security threats from ISIS and domestic resentment toward Israeli actions in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Violence in the Holy City has unnerved the king, but the prospect of additional Syrian refugees constitutes a much greater threat to the kingdom's stability.