Since the early years of the Cold War, the Washington establishment has viewed the Middle East as the Arab world—broadly conceived as the member states of the Arab League (with the exception of the ...

MIddle East: old order, new pressures. Wikimedia Commons The story of Lebanon’s civil war and its outcome now look like a foretaste of the tragedy unfolding across the whole northern tier of the ...

Violent upheaval in the Middle East has recently spawned all manner of maps purporting to explain how the region got this way. Here, instead, are 15 maps that don’t claim as much.

In the past year the fighting has sprawled from Israel and Gaza to draw in militaries and militias from across the region.

But on to new business—which, in this case, is old business. Almost seven years ago, I wrote a cover story for this magazine about the coming collapse of the post-World War I Middle East map.

In late September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heralded a prosperous and connected “New Middle East.” But it turns out the “old” Middle East was impossible to bury.

“Why, this is a fine old Bedouin custom,” he said. While the Arab Leaguers waited in Riyadh, the late Yahya’s eldest son Prince Seif el Islam Ahmed captured the Yemenite capital of Sana.

A look at where Iran exerts influence across the region and at the emerging Saudi coalition.

The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz was tracked leaving the western Pacific Ocean as it transited toward the Indian Ocean, indicating a possible deployment to the Middle East.

Straight lines across the desert The 1916 Sykes-Picot map of the division of territorial spoils between Britain and France looks very different from a map of the modern Middle East.

The outlook for the Middle East depends on three cantankerous old men Ali Khamenei, Binyamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump will determine whether the conflict continues ...

In the past year the fighting has sprawled from Israel and Gaza to draw in militaries and militias from across the region.