About Middle East Insider

I cover three things that decide American security: the Middle East, the networks that spread extremism, and the US foreign policy that confronts both. I write for a specific reader — the policy advisor, the analyst, the congressional staffer, the journalist, and the donor who funds the fight. People who need signal, not noise, before 8 a.m.

The Forum I run has defined and defended American interests in the region for three decades. We expose the financiers of extremism, push designations and debarments that carry real consequences, and argue — without apology — that US policy should serve US interests. This brief is how I put that work in your inbox every day.

My analysis is dispassionate. My policy posture is not. A system of frameworks runs through everything I publish, across three domains; The alliance and the American interest; Counter-extremism, at home and abroad; and, Iran and the use of force.

I name them as the news calls for them. Read for a few weeks and they become second nature.