If there is one fundamental relationship that is central to stable statehood and the wellbeing of entire populations in modern states, it is the relationship between the citizen and the state. These highest and the lowest, and biggest and smallest, levels of statehood need to be reasonably in sync with one another for relatively normal […]
Senior officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will meet with Iranian counterparts in Tehran on December 13. The IAEA is prepared to visit a building located at Parchin, a site that Iran says is a conventional military facility but where the IAEA believes Tehran may have carried out tests related to the development […]
Saudi Arabia may have at first appeared untouched by the 2011 Arab uprisings, but the apparent calm belies a simmering crisis. Shia and Sunni sectarian tensions are arguably at the highest level since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and a harsh government crackdown is mobilizing radical elements in the Shia community and undercutting its pragmatists. […]
Many foreign policy mandarins might not like or understand it, but the foreign policy operating environment is changing quickly. When in 2011 the Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, was unable to get in touch with his Bahraini counterpart during the heat of the protest movement there, he opted to publicly shame him via Twitter. When General Electric was […]
This summer, a group known as the “Cutting Sword of Justice” slashed its way across world headlines with bold attacks on oil and gas industry. But what makes the series attacks noteworthy is not that they were successfully planned and carried out, it’s how they happened: in cyberspace. Brazen cyber-attacks were carried out against Saudi […]
SINCE the wave of Arab uprisings started last year, the theory of “Arab exceptionalism” promoted by many Western governments to justify supporting dictatorships has looked a lot weaker. There was virtually no demand for democracy in rich, pro-Western or strategically valuable Arab countries, it was once breezily argued. Now the buzz phrase is “monarchical exceptionalism”. […]
Debate – The staying power of Arab Monarchies Read Here – International Herald Tribune
looking beyond borders 