The Rubin Center Needs Your Support / 2016 Activities Update

The Rubin Center needs your support
to continue its groundbreaking research 
Make your tax-deductible donation today!

Founded by the late Professor Barry Rubin, the Rubin Center is one of the most versatile and active Mid-East research centers in the world. Through its groundbreaking frontline reporting and research, the center makes the most up-to-date, accurate, often otherwise inaccessible information available to policymakers, the broader public, and the media.

As a non-profit organization, the Rubin Center depends on your contributions to continue its work.


 

UPDATE:  Some of the projects your tax-deductible donations have supported so far in 2016…

Frontline reporting

Throughout 2016, Rubin Center Director Dr. Jonathan Spyer has continued his frontline reporting of the wars in Syria and Iraq.  Spyer recently visited the Turkish-Syrian border area, reporting on the Turkish-supported rebel militias currently at the forefront of the Turkish incursion into northern Syria; and in Iraqi Kurdistan, reporting on preparations for the offensive to liberate Mosul from Islamic State (IS).  His articles have appeared recently in Jane’s Intelligence Review, The Spectator (UK), and The Australian.  Spyer also recently spent time in Syria with the Syrian Democratic Forces militia, reporting for these and other publications.

Primary research
 

Rubin Fellow Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi has continued to build up his unique archives of over 500 Islamic State documents, creating a vital public resource on the inner workings of the organization (financial accounts, personnel lists, and more). These archives and collections have included many previously unseen documents and texts leaked by Jawad, including important works like Principles in the Administration of the Islamic State (a bureaucratic position paper outline of the state project) and a manual guiding commanders in planning and executing military missions. Britain’s The Guardian has called Jawad’s archive “the most thorough log of Isis documents available to the public.”

 

Jawad also wrote a widely publicized paper for West Point’s CTC Sentinel assessing the Islamic State’s strengths and weaknesses based partly on internal documents.  While with the Rubin Center, Jawad has profiled numerous militias in Syria, including native Syrian Hizballah and the integration of Shi’i militias into the Syrian state apparatus.

 

Rubin Center Director Dr. Jonathan Spyer recently authored a paper on Israel’s strategic doctrine for the Friends of Israel group, and a paper on Iranian regional strategy for the Henry Jackson Society think tank, for which he interviewed senior serving Israeli officials.

 

We are also happy to welcome new Rubin Center Associate Neri Zilber, a journalist and researcher on Middle East politics and culture and an adjunct fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Media and Consultancy
 

As specialists on the ground throughout the Middle East, the Rubin Center frequently consults for governments, including the United States, UK, China, Israel, India, Canada, and the Czech Republic, news media, and academic research. Rubin researchers have been sought out by the White House, the British Parliament, and other Western governments, as well as media bodies and human rights NGOs.

 

In 2016 alone, Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi has been quoted in a wide range of media outlets, academic journals, and government briefings—including in a U.S. House of Representatives memo on investigating financing for terrorism, and by the United Nations on the subject of crimes against the Yazidis in Syria.

 

Jonathan Spyer has recently visited Beijing, Prague, and Washington, D.C.—addressing meetings at Capitol Hill.  He will soon visit New Delhi and Copenhagen as part of the center’s ongoing ties with a number of foreign embassies.

Publications
 

Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA)

Covering the latest developments in the region from a wide variety of viewpoints, including U.S. policy, radical movements, and minorities, the Rubin Center’s quarterly journal MERIA has a circulation of over 25,000.  Get your free email subscription today!

 

Turkish Studies

In a crucial geographical and political location, Turkey’s importance is growing rapidly throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. With an upsurge in interest in its history, politics, and foreign policy, Turkish Studies quarterly—listed in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)—offers scholarly discussion on these topics and more.

 

Books

The Rubin Center has produced numerous books on subjects related to the modern Middle East.  These include:

• Nazis, Islamists and the Making of the Modern Middle East—about the political alliance forged among Third Reich leaders, Arab nationalists, and Muslim religious authorities during the 1930s and 1940s
• The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict—dealing with the emergence of Islamist movements as Israel’s main adversaries and Israel’s response to this
• The Military History of the Modern Middle East—covers the military history of the past hundred years, including both World Wars, the Turkish-Greek conflicts, Arab nationalism, the Arab-Israeli conflicts, and the post-2003 fighting in Iraq
• Free Books Project—we continue to offer 13 of Barry Rubin’s books online at no cost, including books covering the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Syria, U.S. policy, Jewish assimilation, and more.

With all this going on and much more, the Rubin Center needs your support more urgently than ever.  Donations are tax-deductible within the U.S. (including via PayPal), Israel, and the UK.

  Click here to support the Rubin Center today!