Saudi Arabia and Israel put a high US price tag on diplomatic relations
Like Israel, Saudi Arabia wants a formalised security agreement, even if that accord may not target Iran as explicitly as Israel’s request does.
21 August 2023, 03:00 AM
Playing games in Nato, Turkey eyes its role in a new world order
Nato’s spat over Turkish opposition to Swedish and Finnish membership is about more than expanding the North Atlantic military alliance.
28 May 2022, 18:00 PM
S Arabia targets a more Republican Washington
Rather than push for an immediate improvement of strained relations with the United States, Saudi Arabia appears to be looking forward to a
24 April 2022, 18:00 PM
Russian societal tensions are mirrored in Putin’s Orthodox church
The Russian Orthodox Church blesses rather than fire weapons. In doing so, it has emerged as a powerful weapon in its own right in President Vladimir Putin’s civilisationalist arsenal.
8 March 2022, 18:00 PM
Saudi, Emirati religious moderation yet to inspire others
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have drawn praise for social reforms that have domestically reduced the role of religion in public life.
12 January 2022, 18:00 PM
Christmas finally arrives in Saudi Arabia
Long banned, Christmas has finally—at least tacitly—arrived in Saudi Arabia; just don’t use the name in marketing or be ostentatious about your tree.
28 December 2021, 18:00 PM
A new world: The Middle East tries cooperation alongside competition
Just in case there were any doubts, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu demonstrated with his visit to Lebanon last week that improved relations between Middle-Eastern rivals would not bury hatchets.
23 November 2021, 18:00 PM
Reducing Middle East tensions can lessen sectarianism and open doors for women
Two separate developments involving improved relations between Sunni and Shia Muslims and women’s sporting rights demonstrate major shifts in how rivalry for the leadership of the Muslim world and competition to define Islam in the 21st century are playing out in a world where the Middle Eastern states can no longer depend on the United States coming to their defence.
11 October 2021, 18:00 PM
Saudi Arabia and Israel put a high US price tag on diplomatic relations
Like Israel, Saudi Arabia wants a formalised security agreement, even if that accord may not target Iran as explicitly as Israel’s request does.
21 August 2023, 03:00 AM
Playing games in Nato, Turkey eyes its role in a new world order
Nato’s spat over Turkish opposition to Swedish and Finnish membership is about more than expanding the North Atlantic military alliance.
28 May 2022, 18:00 PM
S Arabia targets a more Republican Washington
Rather than push for an immediate improvement of strained relations with the United States, Saudi Arabia appears to be looking forward to a
24 April 2022, 18:00 PM
Russian societal tensions are mirrored in Putin’s Orthodox church
The Russian Orthodox Church blesses rather than fire weapons. In doing so, it has emerged as a powerful weapon in its own right in President Vladimir Putin’s civilisationalist arsenal.
8 March 2022, 18:00 PM
Saudi, Emirati religious moderation yet to inspire others
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have drawn praise for social reforms that have domestically reduced the role of religion in public life.
12 January 2022, 18:00 PM
Christmas finally arrives in Saudi Arabia
Long banned, Christmas has finally—at least tacitly—arrived in Saudi Arabia; just don’t use the name in marketing or be ostentatious about your tree.
28 December 2021, 18:00 PM
A new world: The Middle East tries cooperation alongside competition
Just in case there were any doubts, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu demonstrated with his visit to Lebanon last week that improved relations between Middle-Eastern rivals would not bury hatchets.
23 November 2021, 18:00 PM
Reducing Middle East tensions can lessen sectarianism and open doors for women
Two separate developments involving improved relations between Sunni and Shia Muslims and women’s sporting rights demonstrate major shifts in how rivalry for the leadership of the Muslim world and competition to define Islam in the 21st century are playing out in a world where the Middle Eastern states can no longer depend on the United States coming to their defence.
11 October 2021, 18:00 PM
Initial Taliban moves fail to convince Afghanistan’s neighbours
The Taliban’s record in recent weeks on making good on promises to respect human and women’s rights as well as uphold freedom of the press is mixed at best.
18 September 2021, 18:00 PM
Afghanistan has lessons for the Gulf
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan will likely clarify what the Gulf’s security options are.
6 September 2021, 18:00 PM
Af-Pak takes on a new meaning with the rise of the Taliban
Recent attacks on Kabul’s international airport by the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate raise multiple questions, as well as the spectre of paradigm shifts in the drivers and expanding geography of political violence.
31 August 2021, 18:00 PM
Afghan debacle potentially puts UAE on the spot
Afghanistan is showing the United Arab Emirates the downside of being a haven for deposed leaders and exiled politicians whose wealth is reportedly parked without question in Emirati financial institutions.
23 August 2021, 18:00 PM
Afghanistan may be a bellwether for Saudi-Iranian rivalry
Boasting an almost 1,000-kilometre border with Iran and a history of troubled relations between the Iranians and Sunni Muslim militants, including the Taliban, Afghanistan could become a bellwether for the future of the rivalry between the Islamic Republic and Saudi Arabia.
4 August 2021, 18:00 PM
Forging a future with rather than against Iran
The rise of hardline President-elect Ebrahim Raisi has prompted some analysts to counterintuitively suggest that it could pave the way for reduced
26 June 2021, 18:00 PM
A possible obstacle to the revival of the Iran nuclear accord
A little acknowledged provision of the 2015 international agreement that curbed Iran’s nuclear programme explains jockeying by the United States and the Islamic republic over the modalities of a US return to the deal from which President Donald J Trump withdrew.
28 February 2021, 18:00 PM
Myanmar: Exploiting lessons learnt in the Middle East
Demonstrating for the third week their determination to force the country’s military to return to its barracks, protesters in Myanmar appear to be learning lessons from a decade of protest in the Middle East and North Africa.
24 February 2021, 18:00 PM
Turkey signals sweeping regional ambitions
A nationalist Turkish television station with close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dug up a 12-year-old map that projects Turkey’s sphere of influence in 2050 as stretching from South-eastern Europe on the northern coast of the Mediterranean and Libya on its southern shore across North Africa, the Gulf and the Levant into the Caucasus and Central Asia.
23 February 2021, 18:00 PM
Islamophobia: A useful prop for Muslim religious soft power
Think the Muslim world is united in opposing Islamophobia? Think twice.
30 January 2021, 18:00 PM
Iranians move into front line of Middle East’s quest for religious change
A recent online survey by scholars at two Dutch universities of Iranian attitudes towards religion has revealed a stunning rejection of state-imposed adherence to conservative religious mores as well as the role of religion in public life.
27 January 2021, 18:00 PM
Erdogan positions powerful Turkish military as backbone of regional strategy
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ushered in the new year pledging to employ his country’s military to secure Turkey’s place in a rebalanced new world order.
5 January 2021, 18:00 PM