Nearly twelve months after Iran’s diplomatic victory with the JCPOA, Tehran is still embroiled in four different major regional conflicts, and a fifth may soon break out. Read Here – The National Interest
Since the conclusion of the Iranian nuclear deal last July, the perennial antagonism between Riyadh and Tehran has reached a dangerous pitch, fuelling the violence that rages in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen and the undercurrent of instability that saturates the region. Read Here – Brookings
While the United States has resigned from its role as the leading world champion, it shouldn’t be surprising to see how this action has created an unprecedented vacuum, with dangerous and even evil powers queuing up to fill that void. This sadly has been the case in the Middle East and Europe and even in […]
Leaders change, and the Middle East can always surprise. But regardless of presidential preference and promises, there are a half-dozen verities that will haunt any leader, from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton — just as they have bedevilled President Barack Obama and his predecessors. Read Here – RealClear World
While the immediate catalyst for economic restructuring is the impact of the sharp fall in international oil prices, the rationale for these reforms has been evident for much longer. With oil sales generating the bulk of government revenues, and with the public sector being the predominant employer, Saudi officials have long worried that the Kingdom’s […]
The failure of the Sykes-Picot agreement is now part of the received wisdom about the contemporary Middle East. And it is not hard to understand why. Four states in the Middle East are failing — Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya. Read Here – Foreign Policy
Bangladesh is in a straitjacket and its government is embattled. With no sign of a let-up in the killings of liberals and secular writers, the feeling grows that the administration led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is not on top of the situation. Read Here – The Indian Express
Dubbed by Newsweek a decade ago as “the most dangerous man in Iraq,” Muqtada al-Sadr, the figure at the center of Iraq’s current political storm, isn’t the man many might recall from the past. Read Here – NPR
The international community is watching closely as Iranians wrap up two elections today, one for the parliament, or Majlis, and the other for the Assembly of Experts. For brief profiles of the central actors in current Iranian politics, Read Here – Brookings
When the Arab world was tolerant and accepting of others, it led the world: From Baghdad to Damascus to Andalusia and farther afield, we provided beacons of science, knowledge, and civilization, because humane values were the basis of our relationships with all civilizations, cultures, and religions. Even when our ancestors left Andalusia, people of other […]
looking beyond borders 