Analysis
Life inside Syria’s al-Hol camp
After the fall of ISIS in 2019, many relatives of fighters who were detained or killed, including 10,000 families of foreign fighters, were housed in camps like al-Hol and Roj in territory controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces. In a new piece for MEI, Non-Resident Scholar Vera Mironova explores the dynamic inside the al-Hol camp foreigners’ annex, painting a picture of what life is really like. Drawing on in-depth interviews with foreign females in the camp, she finds that life in al-Hol is much more complicated than is often portrayed.
Update from MEI
Despite the physical closure of MEI’s offices on N St. until further notice, MEI’s staff and experts are teleworking and busier than ever. Given our mission to educate and inform, coupled with the dramatic impact of COVID-19 on life in the Middle East, MEI remains committed to providing our readers, viewers and supporters with unique insights, policy analysis and stories of creativity and hope from the region.
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Latest Publications
Rethinking US Counterterrorism Strategy
Jul 06, 2020Today’s landscape is dramatically different from that to which we awoke on Sept. 11, 2001. It’s a complex mix of foreign and domestic forces influenced by economic and social conditions that breed extremism which ebbs and flows across physical and cyber space often defined by great power competition. While terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS have innovated and adapted, U.S. counterterrorism strategy has remained unchanged, fighting yesterday’s war while neglecting present day threats as well as those over the near horizon. America is long overdue to update its counterterrorism strategy and, perhaps more importantly, how we measure success.
COVID-19 in Yemen: A disaster rarely comes alone
Jul 09, 2020
Saudi Arabia and the outlook for OPEC+
Jul 08, 2020
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We seek to promote knowledge of the Middle East in America and strengthen understanding of the United States by the peoples and governments of the region. We believe pursuit of this goal is integral to building a world of peace and stability, in which the people of our two regions value our shared humanity.
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