The ICTS at the Potomac Institute hosted a forum on “The Middle East Crisis: Updates on Strategic Challenges and Opportunities” on July 25, 2014. General (Ret.) Alfred Gray (Twenty-Ninth Commandant of the United States Marine Corps; Senior Fellow and Chairman of the Board of Regents, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies) made opening remarks and Professor Yonah Alexander (Director, Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies, and Senior Fellow, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies) moderated the event. The panel includes Brigadier General David Reist, USMC (Ret.) (Operation Iraqi Freedom, Deputy Commanding General for Governance and Economics in Anbar Province from February 2006-February 2007 and Vice President, Strategy and Planning Division, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies), Oren Marmorstein (Counselor for Public and Academic Affairs, Embassy of Israel), and Dr. Judith Yaphe (Former senior analyst on Near East Persian Gulf issues in the Office of Near Eastern and South Asian Analysis, Directorate of Intelligence, CIA, currently, a professor at the Elliot School of International Affairs at the George Washington University). This panel of experts provided political and military updated assessments clarifying the complex security situation in the region and beyond.