The RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy (CMEPP) brings together analytic excellence and regional expertise from across the RAND Corporation to address the most critical political, social, and economic challenges facing the Middle East today. Our goal is to inform policy in ways that help improve the security and well-being of people living in the region.
Since 2011, 12 million Syrians have fled their homes, either inside Syria or crossing its borders as refugees. To help shape policy that will improve the lives of refugees and support host communities over the longer term, RAND focuses its work on the greatest challenges related to this crisis: humanitarian assistance, education, jobs, and regional and global security.
Director, Center for Middle East Public Policy; Senior Political Scientist
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Recent Commentary
Development with No Political Framework Is a Car Without an Engine
Jul 9, 2019
C. Ross Anthony, Charles P. Ries @charles_ries
Differing historical narratives, asymmetry of power, security concerns, upheaval in the larger region, poverty, and religious differences all make Israel-Palestine one of the world's most intractable conflicts. An early-summer meeting in Bahrain served as a sales session of sorts for the economic half of the Trump administration's proposal to solve it.
The Flawed Logic of Proportionality
Jul 1, 2019
Raphael S. Cohen
President Trump halted a retaliatory strike against Iran on the basis that it would have claimed many Iranian lives and was not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone. There are many good reasons to avoid attacking Iran, but if Washington must resort to force in the future, it should avoid the flawed logic of proportionality.
Changing the Way America Goes to War
Jun 25, 2019
Michael J. Mazarr
America's vast power, and the weakness of most of its enemies, has allowed it to get away with a striking absence of deliberative judgment when deciding on war, as the Iraq case makes clear. But that free pass is coming to an end. It's time for the United States to rethink the way it decides on wars of choice.