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Articles by Kali Robinson
The global water crisis: Stress, scarcity and conflict
Most of the world's population lives in countries classified as “water-insecure” or “critically water-insecure.” As CFR explains, this can cause either conflict or cooperation.
A timeline of U.S.-Iran relations 1953 to 2026
Iranians set fire to U.S. and Israeli flags as they commemorate those killed in the sinking of the Dena naval vessel, at Enghelab Square on March 17 in Tehran.
Iran’s Support of the Houthis: What to Know
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement has become one of the Middle East’s most potent nonstate actors since Israel’s war against Hamas reignited in 2023. The group’s campaign of disruptive strikes in the Red Sea persisted despite U.S. retaliatory attacks and fueled tensions in recent years.
Migration, Europe, Germany | Homeland Security Newswire
MIGRATIONEurope’s Migration Dilemma Published 5 June 2024 Hundreds of thousands of migrants made the dangerous journey to Europe in 2023, fleeing war, poverty, and natural disasters. The increase in arrivals has fueled support for far-right political parties. The long and often arduous journey to Europe has not been a dealbreaker for the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived on the continent illegally in recent years.
Europe’s Migration Dilemma
Hundreds of thousands of migrants made the dangerous journey to Europe in 2023, fleeing war, poverty, and natural disasters. The increase in arrivals has fueled support for far-right political parties. The long and often arduous journey to Europe has not been a dealbreaker for the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived on the continent illegally in recent years. More than 385,000 such migrants entered Europe in 2023, nearly triple the pandemic-era low in 2020.
Iran’s Support of the Houthis: What to Know
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement has become one of the Middle East’s most potent nonstate actors since Israel’s war against Hamas reignited in 2023. The group’s ability to maintain disruptive strikes in the Red Sea and the recent escalation in U.S. retaliatory attacks raise fresh questions about instability in the greater region. Who are the Houthis? More From Our Experts The Houthis are a local rebel movement that currently rules a third of Yemen’s territory and two-thirds of its population.
Who is part of Iran’s regional armed network and what are their aims? Original
World Updated on Apr 21, 2024 1:24 PM EDT — Published on Feb 6, 2024 2:09 PM EDT In the four decades since its Islamic Revolution, Iran has formed and supported an expanding number of allied fighting forces throughout the Middle East. Iran’s Quds Force, part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), serves as the main point of contact with these groups, providing them with training, weaponry, and funds to promote Iranian regional objectives.
Who is part of Iran’s regional armed network and what are their aims?
In the four decades since its Islamic Revolution, Iran has formed and supported an expanding number of allied fighting forces throughout the Middle East. Iran’s Quds Force, part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), serves as the main point of contact with these groups, providing them with training, weaponry, and funds to promote Iranian regional objectives.
Who is in charge of Gaza and the West Bank?
A complex mix of authorities governs the 5.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank territories. Palestinians, like Jews, trace their ancestry to the geographic area that now forms the state of Israel and the two Palestinian territories. Yet, the Palestinians do not have a universally recognized state, with their aspirations to create one depending not just on Palestinian leadership, but also on Israel and recognition by foreign powers.
Who is in charge of Gaza and the West Bank?
A complex mix of authorities governs the 5.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank territories. Palestinians, like Jews, trace their ancestry to the geographic area that now forms the state of Israel and the two Palestinian territories. Yet, the Palestinians do not have a universally recognized state, with their aspirations to create one depending not just on Palestinian leadership, but also on Israel and recognition by foreign powers.
Who Governs the Palestinians?
Summary Millions of Palestinians live under the control of a mix of authorities in the Palestinian territories and in refugee camps across the Middle East. In recent decades, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has controlled parts of the West Bank, and the militant group Hamas has run the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israel has exercised power over both areas in different ways. Amid the latest Israel-Hamas war, the PA is facing heightened scrutiny about its ability to run Gaza if Israel destroys Hamas.
What is Hezbollah? What to know about its origins, structure and history
Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim political party and militant group based in Lebanon, where its extensive security apparatus, political organization, and social services network have fostered its reputation as “a state within a state.” Founded in the chaos of the fifteen-year Lebanese Civil War, the Iran-backed group is driven by its opposition to Israel and its resistance to Western influence in the Middle East.
What Is Hamas? By Zachary Laub and Kali Robinson
Summary A spin-off of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1980s, the Islamist militant group Hamas took over the Gaza Strip after defeating its rival political party, Fatah, in elections in 2006. The United States and European Union have designated Hamas a terrorist organization because of its armed resistance against Israel, which has included suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
What is Hamas? What to know about its origins, leaders and funding
Hamas is an Islamist militant movement and one of the Palestinian territories’ two major political parties. It governs more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but the group is best known for its armed resistance to Israel. In Oct. 2023, Hamas launched a massive surprise attack on southern Israel, killing hundreds of civilians and soldiers and taking dozens more as hostages.
Defeated and Detained, Islamic State Still Poses Extremism Threat
An eighty-five-nation coalition celebrated the defeat of the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS, in 2019, but the conundrum of what to do with an unprecedented number of captured militants and their families could trouble the world for years to come.
Iran is Breaking Out of Its Box
Sign in and save to read later Print this article Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Get a link Page url Request Reprint Permissions In April, startling pictures emerged from Beijing of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, grinning and clasping hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. Relations between Sunni-controlled Saudi Arabia and Shiite-dominated Iran had been bitter for decades.
Russia Killed the Black Sea Grain Deal. These Countries Could Suffer Most.
Moscow says it’s done cooperating with the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal in which Russia eased its military blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports to facilitate exports of Ukrainian grain, oilseed, and fertilizer. The deal allowed over thirty million tons of grain to exit Ukraine since its signing a year ago, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
What Drives Putin and Xi (Part One)
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin loom over geopolitics in a way that few leaders have in decades. Not even Mao and Stalin drove global events the way Xi and Putin do today. Who they are, how they view the world, and what they want are some of the most important and pressing questions in foreign policy and international affairs. Stephen Kotkin and Orville Schell are two of the best scholars to explore these issues.
Where African countries stand in their struggle toward more inclusive LGBTQ+ laws
Communities worldwide celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride each June, but in African countries such as Uganda, restrictive new laws are casting a pall over the festivities. Uganda isn’t an outlier, and Africans as a whole still face more anti-LGBTQ+ laws than their peers in many other parts of the world.
Africa’s Struggle Toward Inclusive LGBTQ+ Laws
Communities worldwide celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride each June, but in African countries such as Uganda, restrictive new laws are casting a pall over the festivities. Uganda isn’t an outlier, and Africans as a whole still face more anti-LGBTQ+ laws than their peers in many other parts of the world.
Africa’s Struggle Toward Inclusive LGBTQ+ Laws
Communities worldwide celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride each June, but in African countries such as Uganda, restrictive new laws are casting a pall over the festivities. Uganda isn’t an outlier, and Africans as a whole still face more anti-LGBTQ+ laws than their peers in many other parts of the world.
How Secrecy Limits Diversity
Sign in and save to read later Print this article Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Get a link Page url Request Reprint Permissions In December 2022, the Department of Energy announced that it was righting a historic wrong. After an unprecedented reexamination of a decades-old case, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm decided to void the 1954 revocation of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s security clearance.
Syria Is Normalizing Relations With Arab Countries. Who Will Benefit?
After twelve years of shunning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, many Arab countries are ready to put the past behind them and normalize relations with his regime. The Arab League underscored this shift by restoring Damascus’s membership in the organization, which had been suspended in 2011 following Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-regime protesters, and the Syrian leader is now likely to attend the Arab League’s annual summit on May 19.
The War-Weary West
Sign in and save to read later Print this article Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Get a link Page url Request Reprint Permissions In early February, U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, introduced a resolution to halt all U.S. military and financial aid to Ukraine.
The World Beyond Ukraine
Sign in and save to read later Print this article Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Get a link Page url Request Reprint Permissions “Ukraine has united the world,” declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a speech on the first anniversary of the start of the war with Russia. If only that were true. The war has certainly united the West, but it has left the world divided. And that rift will only widen if Western countries fail to address its root causes.
Iran Isn’t the Only Country With Morality Police
Iran’s morality police have gained international notoriety, but they aren’t the world’s only Islamic religious police or the first ones accused of mistreating citizens. A handful of countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia have police devoted to busting so-called un-Islamic activities. Iran and Saudi Arabia, for example, dedicate thousands of officers to this purpose. In some other countries, general police units enforce Islamic moral codes as well as secular laws.
What Is the Kafala System?
What Is the Kafala System? The kafala, or sponsorship, system gives private citizens and companies in Jordan, Lebanon, and most Arab Gulf countries almost total control over migrant workers’ employment and immigration status. Read Full Article »
Do Iran’s Women Protesters Have the Power to Topple the Regime?
Susan Hayward, associate director of the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative at Harvard Divinity School, leads the conversation on religious literacy in international affairs. FASKIANOS: Welcome to the final session of the Fall 2022 CFR Academic Webinar Series. I’m Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach here at CFR.
Big Tech Goes to War
Sign in and save to read later Print this article Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Get a link Page url Request Reprint Permissions Even before he made a bid to buy Twitter, Elon Musk was an avid user of the site. It is a reason Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov took to the social media platform to prod the SpaceX CEO to activate Starlink, a SpaceX division that provides satellite internet, to help his country in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion.
How Much Influence Does Iran Have in Iraq?
What are Iran’s interests in Iraq? Iran has been deeply involved in Iraqi politics since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003. More than a dozen Iraqi political parties have ties to Iran, which funds and trains paramilitary groups aligned with these parties. Some paramilitary groups under the umbrella of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces have pledged allegiance to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In Photos: Protests Over Iranian Woman’s Death Reverberate Widely
The death of Mahsa Amini is fueling outrage against Iran’s hijab laws and stoking criticism of the country’s clerical leadership. Mass protests are sweeping across Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian woman who died suddenly after she was detained by the country’s morality police. The demonstrations have evolved to encompass broad anti-government grievances and have won supporters worldwide.
In Photos: Protests Over Iranian Woman’s Death Reverberate Widely
Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s morality police began enforcing conservative dress in accordance with Islamic law as interpreted by Iran’s top clerics. Alleged lawbreakers can be fined or even detained in reeducation facilities. Known for their heavy-handedness, the morality police have long been controversial, with some reformist politicians calling for their dissolution.
U.S. Policy on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Introduction Israelis and Palestinians have clashed over claims to the Holy Land for decades, a conflict that has long been one of the world’s most intractable. Although the United States is a strong supporter of Israel, it has traditionally tried to advance a diplomatic solution that would reconcile the competing claims of the two parties. Multiple U.S. administrations have proposed road maps for a peace process that would result in two states, one Israeli and one Palestinian.
The Hypnotist in the Kremlin
Sign in and save to read later Print this article Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Get a link Page url Request Reprint Permissions Situated on the Baltic Coast, the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad is closer to Europe than any other part of Russia. It is surrounded by NATO powers, Poland and Lithuania. A former Prussian territory, it also has a long tradition as a center of European culture. Immanuel Kant walked its streets in the eighteenth century; Thomas Mann wrote a novella there in 1929.
Egypt Is Hosting COP27. Can It Become Africa’s Climate Champion?
With Egypt hosting this year’s UN climate summit, the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties (COP27), Cairo has positioned itself as Africa’s climate leader and aims to secure funds to help developing countries’ adaptation efforts. But as the country prepares the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh for the November summit, some critics question whether Egypt can be a leader on climate action while it continues to stifle civil society and rely on fossil fuels.
What It Means to Be Iranian in America
Sign in and save to read later Print this article Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Get a link Page url Request Reprint Permissions I was an immigrant before my first birthday. We left Iran in 1975 for Peoria, Illinois, home of Caterpillar; my father transferred there from the company’s Tehran branch. The Iranian Revolution began in 1978, while my family was on our first return visit, our last shared visit, to the country of my birth. I was four years old.
A Turning Point for Hezbollah?
A Turning Point for Hezbollah? Military experience gained from fighting in Syria’s civil war and decades of clashes with Israel have made the Iran-backed group stronger than ever, but the biggest threat it faces may be upheaval in… Read Full Article »
What Lebanon’s Election Results Mean for Ending Its Crisis
Do Lebanon’s parliamentary elections signal a change for the much-criticized government? The May 15 elections brought modest but potentially meaningful shifts in Lebanon’s political establishment. The bloc led by Hezbollah—a Shiite Muslim, Iran-backed militant group and political party—lost its majority. Meanwhile, independents won 13 of Parliament’s 128 seats, up from just one in the 2018 elections.
Turkey’s Growing Foreign Policy Ambitions
Summary Founded in 1923 from the remains of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey pursued a secular, Western-aligned foreign policy by joining NATO and seeking closer ties with the EU. In recent decades, Ankara has angered some neighbors with its territorial claims; refugee policies; and military interventions in Libya, Syria, and elsewhere. Reelected in 2023, President Erdogan is expected to maintain his path of foreign policy independence, which has featured deepened ties with China and Russia.
How Russia’s War in Ukraine Could Amplify Food Insecurity in the Mideast
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has jeopardized food supplies across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region where many countries rely heavily on imports, especially staples such as wheat. Food insecurity was already a major challenge in the region as a result of climate change, water stress, and the COVID-19 pandemic. How bad is food insecurity in the Middle East and North Africa? Some countries in the region are more food insecure than others.
How Israel’s Pegasus Spyware Stoked the Surveillance Debate
Revelations about widespread abuse of the powerful Israeli-made spyware have drawn international condemnation and punitive measures, including sanctions and lawsuits. The scandal has also exposed alarming regulatory gaps with regard to emerging surveillance technologies, but it’s unclear if the Pegasus controversy will spur any effective regulation. What is Pegasus?
Iran’s Hollow Victory
Sign in and save to read later Print this article Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Get a link Page url Request Reprint Permissions Few countries have maintained clearer or more consistent aspirations over the last four decades than the Islamic Republic of Iran.
What Is Hamas?
Summary Hamas is an Islamist militant group that spun off from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1980s. It took over the Gaza Strip after defeating its rival political party, Fatah, in elections in 2006. Governments including the United States and European Union have designated Hamas a terrorist organization over its attacks against Israel, which have included suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
State and Local Officials Webinar: The American Rescue Plan and Economic Recovery
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Erin Scott/REUTERS Speakers Former State Treasurer, State of North Carolina Director, Budget Process Studies, National Association of State Budget Officers Presider Vice President for National Program and Outreach, Council on Foreign Relations Janet Cowell, former state treasurer of North Carolina, andKathryn White, director of budget process studies at the National Association of...
What Does Mladic’s Conviction Mean for Genocide Law?
One of the most complex cases in international criminal justice came to an end on June 8, with an international tribunal upholding the November 2017 conviction [PDF] of former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic for perpetrating what have come to be known as “atrocity crimes”—a category that includes genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity—during the Bosnian War of the early 1990s.
After Geneva Summit, Daunting Diplomacy Ahead for U.S. and Russia
What is the most significant takeaway from the summit? The meeting was a small step forward in injecting the stability and predictability that President Biden seeks into what will remain an adversarial relationship. Both sides agree that the talks were constructive, even though there were no breakthroughs in the long list of contentious issues. The two presidents launched dialogues on strategic stability and cybersecurity but without great confidence that progress is possible.
The Emerging Global Technology Underclass
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Ann Wang/Reuters Speaker Mary L. Gray Senior Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research Presider Adjunct Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations Women and Foreign Policy Roundtable Series and Roundtable Series on Cybersecurity and Cyberconflict Working for low wages and few benefits, a large but invisible workforce keeps the internet running.
What to Know About the Arab Citizens of Israel
Summary Arabs comprise just over 20 percent of Israel’s population. The vast majority are citizens, while those in Jerusalem, which Israel claims as its capital, are considered “permanent residents.” Arab citizens have the same legal rights as Jewish Israelis, but they tend to live in poorer cities, have less formal education, and face other challenges that some experts attribute to structural discrimination.
Iran’s Presidential Election: What to Know
Iranian Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi, a protégé of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, appears to be the front-runner among seven candidates running for president in Iran. Although even carefully controlled Iranian elections can be unpredictable, it appears certain that the successor to two-term President Hassan Rouhani will be a regime loyalist with limited power. What’s at stake?
America Is Not Ready for a War With China
Sign in and save to read later Print this article Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Get a link Page url Request Reprint Permissions The United States has spent $19 trillion on its military since the end of the Cold War. That is $16 trillion more than China spent and nearly as much as the rest of the world combined spent during the same period. Yet many experts think that the United States is about to lose a devastating war.
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