INTRODUCTION

The Middle East after October 7 5

Moussa Bourekba and Samuele C. Abrami

REGIONAL ACTORS

From the Hamas October attack to Israel’s seven-front conflict: was it inevitable? 11

Yossi Mekelberg

Disruption: Palestine’s power in an evolving regional order 19

Amjad Iraqi

Apolar Arabia? The Gulf states and the (re)making of a new order 27

Bader Al-Saif

Iran and the reconfiguration of regional order: succession, power and strategic adaptation 35

Luciano Zaccara

Risks and opportunities for Turkey’s Middle East policy: leading or following the change? 41

Samuele C. Abrami

EXTRA-REGIONAL ACTORS

China: toward greater influence on regional architecture? 51

Chuchu Zhang

Europe and the Middle East: between strategic drift and transactional realism 59

Julien Barnes-Dacey

Setback or pause? Russia’s quest for influence in the Middle East 65

Eleonora Tafuro Ambrosetti

US foreign policy in the Middle East: short-termism and the erosion of influence 73

Intissar Fakir