In this Crown Conversation, Eva Bellin argues that the Trump administration’s transactional style is accelerating authoritarian entrenchment and weakening traditional alliances in a region already undergoing a profound reordering of power.
Killian Clarke argues that oil-rich states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE use their oil abundance not just to insulate their own populations from demands for political change but to actively undermine democratic movements across the region.
We marked 20 years of bridging scholarship and real-world insight on the Middle East with an anniversary symposium exploring the biggest challenges facing the Middle East and opportunities for optimism.
The Crown Center for Middle East Studies is committed to conducting balanced and dispassionate research of the modern Middle East that meets the highest academic standards. The Center seeks to help make decision- and opinion-makers better informed about the region. The scope of the center's research includes the 22 members of the Arab League as well as Turkey, Iran and Israel. The Crown Center's approach is multidisciplinary in its study of the politics, economics, history, security, sociology and anthropology of the region's states and societies.
In his second term, President Donald Trump has upended long-standing U.S. approaches to the Middle East. Most notably, on June 22, 2025, he ordered direct strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, crossing a line previous administrations had long avoided. In this Crown Conversation, we speak with Eva Bellin about how this shift is reshaping a region already undergoing a profound reordering of power. Bellin argues that the administration’s transactional style is accelerating authoritarian entrenchment and weakening traditional alliances, with far-reaching implications for the growing influence of Gulf states, the prospects for U.S. involvement in ending the Gaza War, and the future of nuclear diplomacy with Iran.
The Crown Center is dedicated to sharing balanced and dispassionate research on the Middle East. Please see the Crown Center analyses which delve into the roots and evolution of the conflict between Hamas and Israel.
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Counter/Argument: A Middle East Podcast is produced by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. Through conversations with scholars and practitioners encompassing a variety of disciplines and perspectives, each episode will debunk key misconceptions about the contemporary Middle East. "Counter/Argument" is committed to a balanced and dispassionate approach to the region and to making scholarship more widely accessible. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
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Image credit: Chae Lee