The Elbe Group – consisting of retired senior military and intelligence officials from the U.S. and Russia – met in Reykjavik, Iceland in March 2019 to discuss a range of issues including strategic stability, cyber security, counter terrorism, the Middle East, questions related to nuclear security, the status of the Iran nuclear agreement, the future of nuclear nonproliferation, and Arctic issues.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Group agreed on a statement of common goals.

Following the news that the Trump administration plans to abandon the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed in 1987 by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, ten Belfer Center nuclear and U.S.-Russia relations experts offered their thoughts on the significance and consequences of this action.
 

On 16 July in Helsinki, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin will meet his American colleague Donald Trump. The leaders will discuss a number of complicated questions, but the summit will be a success, even if the government leaders cannot reach agreement - so thinks retired Brigadier General and Associate Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, Kevin Ryan. Ryan talked to "Eurasia Expert" about the significance of the meeting between the American and Russian leaders for relations between the two countries, the future of NATO, and explained how American space forces will differ from Russian or Chinese space forces.

A collection of resources from the Middle East Initiative's events during March 2016, marking the fifth anniversary of the start of Syria's uprising, focusing on the international political and humanitarian response to the ongoing Syrian civil war and refugee crisis.

News that one of the 11/13 Paris attackers carried a fake Syrian passport has raised fears about resettlement of Syrian refugees here in the United States. Some politicians and governors have called for the United States to stop resettling Syrian refugees altogether. Here are some facts to guide the debate.

Former UK Ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Fletcher, and BBC war correspondent, Paul Wood, participated in a conversation on Syria moderated by Future of Diplomacy Project Executive Director, Cathryn Clüver, titled “Tolerating the Intolerable: Syria Four Years On” on September 30. Both speakers gave a highly variegated and in-depth response of the major and corollary issues at play in the Syrian conflict and beyond, including the difficulty of finding moderate forces on the ground, the dangers of warzone journalism, the migrant crisis, and Russia's strategic interests.

An audio recording from Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School.

On April 29, 2015 at MEI, Prof. Stephen Walt assessed U.S. policy and interests in the Middle East, arguing that scaled back involvement might yield better results for the U.S. and the region.

An audio recording from Yezid Sayigh, Senior Associate and Professor, Carnegie Middle East Center, Beirut.

On March 31, 2015 at MEI, Dr. Yezid Sayigh examined the political legacy of Saddam Hussein's regime in ISIS' leadership structure and methods of control in Iraq, Syria and beyond.

An audio recording from Bassam Haddad, Associate Professor, School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs, and Director, Middle East and Islamic Studies Program, George Mason University.

On April 2, 2015 at MEI, Professor Bassam Haddad presented a lecture in MEI Visiting Scholar Michael C. Hudson's Spring 2015 Study Group "Rethinking the Arab State" in which he assessed the fluctuating political reality in Syria and how various groups, including Bashar Al-Assad's regime, as well as ISIS and the unarmed civilian opposition organize and govern areas and people under their control.

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” recorded on April 1, 2015, Dr. Philippe Fargues, Director of the Migration Policy Centre, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies European University Institute (EUI), discusses the humanitarian crisis of migrants from North Africa, the Levant, and the Sahel, crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe on boats.