The Long View

Weekend strategic essays on where the region is heading, not just where it has been.

Iran

Nov 1, 2026

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15 min read

The Other Election

Two days before the vote: what a Democratic House could and could not do about the Iran war, the fight against Islamist influence and the alliances in the region, and why the decisions that matter will be made in the eight weeks before it sits.

Gregg Roman

Iran

Oct 25, 2026

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16 min read

The Case for a Jewish Republic

Israel votes on Tuesday with Iran’s threats, the prime minister’s mushroom-cloud post, and a record number of complaints before the elections committee. Israel’s law already says what happens to a vote under attack. The longer question is why a state whose rules can be rewritten by 61 votes treats every election as a matter of survival, and what the next Knesset can do about it.

Gregg Roman

Islamist Influence

Oct 18, 2026

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18 min read

The Suburbs Burned First

France’s worst unrest in years began at a high school in Créteil that was missing a mathematics teacher. What the state left in the suburbs, who moved in, which party stood at the school gates this fall, and what the Islamists did.

Gregg Roman

Iran

Oct 15, 2026

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16 min read

Israel Votes in Twelve Days

What the October 27 election is about, who leads each of the lists, and what can happen after the polls close. A guide for readers outside Israel, with no side taken.

Gregg Roman

Iran

Oct 11, 2026

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10 min read

First Movers

In the war on Iran, the United States has a cyber advantage it has used quietly and a messaging habit it keeps funding loudly. The next phase should reverse the order.

Gregg Roman

Iran

Oct 7, 2026

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12 min read

The 87-Day Warning

In July 2023 a paper presented in the Knesset was right about Gaza and changed nothing in time. Three years later the warning concerns Israel’s alliance with the United States, and the decisions that fall between now and January.

Gregg Roman

Iran

Oct 4, 2026

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14 min read

When the Plan Fails

A program of mine did not work, a partnership did not fit, and the war has not ended the regime in Tehran. Ten scholars on what to do after a plan fails, and what changes at the Forum.

Gregg Roman

The Long View

Sep 27, 2026

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17 min read

Why CAIR Is a Threat, and to Whom

Thirty-two years after it opened a two-person office on K Street, the Council on American-Islamic Relations holds the label, the microphone and the money. An examination of CAIR’s financial discrepancies, hidden foreign financing, and the moderate American Muslims it actively silences.

Gregg Roman

Iran

Sep 20, 2026

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15 min read

Will Washington Strike Iran Again?

The President is weighing whether to “go in and annihilate” Iran’s regime. Tehran has sent its conditions through Doha. How the Forum sets the odds of renewed American and Israeli strikes, and what would move them.

Gregg Roman

The Long View

The Forum Is Building Something New. Here Is What You Will See.

Sep 20, 2026

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17 min read

The Forum Is Building Something New. Here Is What You Will See.

Two quiet weeks from this newsletter, and the reason for them: we have been turning the Middle East Forum into an organization that reads everything, forgets nothing, and shows its work.

Gregg Roman

US Policy

Sep 6, 2026

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13 min read

The Weight of Command

Twenty-five years after September 11, six commanders from three armies, the courage each one showed, and the covenant their citizens owe them.

Gregg Roman

Iran

Aug 31, 2026

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14 min read

The Empire That Isn't

Five years after Kabul, the Times says the lesson is learning how to quit. The evidence reads the other way: America does not police an empire, it preempts chaos, and every time it stops, the bill arrives.

Gregg Roman

Iran

The Anti-Woke Diaspora: Surviving the Red-Green Alliance

Aug 30, 2026

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15 min read

The Anti-Woke Diaspora: Surviving the Red-Green Alliance

Young Iranians in exile watched the left deliver power to the theocrats once. Twenty of them are now the West's clearest voices against doing it again, and the fight they are pointing at is inside Iran.

Gregg Roman

Iran

Aug 28, 2026

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18 min read

The Next Six Months

Six months in, the shock is over and the attrition has begun. Twenty-five fronts the coalition has to manage between now and February.

Gregg Roman

The Long View

Aug 23, 2026

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13 min read

The Empty Runway

What a war with Turkey would look like, and how to hold Syria's sky without fighting one.

Gregg Roman

The Long View

Aug 23, 2026

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12 min read

Trotsky, Lenin, and Gaza

The crucible of Israel's next prime minister.

Gregg Roman

Iran

Aug 17, 2026

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11 min read

Tehran's War on American Morale

It is a military operation. Treat it like one. Plus: the file on Tehran Trita. Free for every reader.

Gregg Roman

The Long View

Alone in the Ranks: Israel's Lone Soldiers and the Alliance That Shows Up

Aug 16, 2026

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14 min read

Alone in the Ranks: Israel's Lone Soldiers and the Alliance That Shows Up

A first look at the book I have begun writing: the IDF's lone soldiers, from the volunteers of 1948 to the post-October 7 generation. Free for every reader.

Gregg Roman

Iran

Aug 9, 2026

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8 min read

The Anatomy of a Leaked Operation

The Long View: The Mossad reassigned the men who promised to topple Tehran. The mission stands; the instrument was wrong. Plus the week in review and what to watch.

Gregg Roman

The Long View

El-Sayed, the DSA, and the Battle for Michigan

Aug 9, 2026

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8 min read

El-Sayed, the DSA, and the Battle for Michigan

He says he isn't DSA. The source code powering his Michigan Senate victory tells a very different foreign policy story.

Gregg Roman

The Long View

One Call, Two Futures: How Saudi Arabia is Playing the Long Game

Aug 2, 2026

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17 min read

One Call, Two Futures: How Saudi Arabia is Playing the Long Game

The Long View: Saudi Arabia holds a nuclear deal it can only unlock by normalizing with Israel, and a Pakistani pact it can invoke without normalizing anything. The record of how Riyadh is choosing, in its own words.

Gregg Roman

Iran

Jun 22, 2026

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10 min read

Iran lost the war. Now it's charging admission.

A mined strait, a brand-new "Strait Authority," billions unfrozen — and a deal that rewards all of it.

Gregg Roman

The Long View

Jun 18, 2026

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8 min read

We have a deal. Now what?

The 60-day window - not the signing - decides whether this refinances the regime or corrodes it

Gregg Roman

The Long View

14 points, $300 billion, and not one line on Iran's missiles.

Jun 17, 2026

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6 min read

14 points, $300 billion, and not one line on Iran's missiles.

The full U.S.-Iran text is public — and Israel was still bombing the missile supply chain on June 8.

Gregg Roman

The Long View

The Other Election

The Case for a Jewish Republic

The Suburbs Burned First

Israel Votes in Twelve Days

First Movers

The 87-Day Warning

When the Plan Fails

Why CAIR Is a Threat, and to Whom

Will Washington Strike Iran Again?

The Forum Is Building Something New. Here Is What You Will See.

The Weight of Command

The Empire That Isn't

The Anti-Woke Diaspora: Surviving the Red-Green Alliance

The Next Six Months

The Empty Runway

Trotsky, Lenin, and Gaza

Tehran's War on American Morale

Alone in the Ranks: Israel's Lone Soldiers and the Alliance That Shows Up

The Anatomy of a Leaked Operation

El-Sayed, the DSA, and the Battle for Michigan

One Call, Two Futures: How Saudi Arabia is Playing the Long Game

Iran lost the war. Now it's charging admission.

We have a deal. Now what?

14 points, $300 billion, and not one line on Iran's missiles.

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