Even more than the Emiratis, the Saudis hold the key to oil wells and expect big concessions from the United States before opening their taps and reversing their pro-Russia oil policy. Read More Here
The country’s leadership has come to understand that the kingdom’s old model, based primarily on an oil-funded welfare state and rigid gender segregation, is no longer sustainable. Read More Here
The struggle for geopolitical primacy between Iran’s Shiite theocracy and the countries led by Sunni Arabs and, more recently, Sunni Turkey is stoking conflict across the region—eroding social compacts, worsening state dysfunction, and catalyzing extremist movements. Read More Here
The Saudi Arabia of today is far different from the Saudi Arabia of Sept. 11, 2001, but for countless numbers of people in the United States, Saudi Arabia will forever be associated with 9/11, the collapse of the World Trade Towers and the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. Read More Here
The Persian Gulf rivals have some distance to go to mend fences, but their nascent rapprochement offers the best chance in years for a return to regional stability in the Middle East. Read More Here
If Saudi Arabia and the UAE are primarily focused on competing with each other, they will both prefer to foster regional stability in order to encourage investment, potentially curbing impulses to behave aggressively towards each other or their neighbours. Read More Here
Pakistan-Saudi Arabia ties are back on track after a rough patch, as both long-time allies put aside geopolitics and ideology to focus on geo-economics. When Pakistan’s military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Prime Minister Imran Khan recently visited Saudi Arabia, they had one main agenda point: re-establishing relations after a year of turmoil and […]
International transfers of major arms stayed at the same level between 2011–15 and 2016–20. Substantial increases in transfers by three of the top five arms exporters—the USA, France and Germany—were largely offset by declining Russian and Chinese arms exports. Middle Eastern arms imports grew by 25 per cent in the period, driven chiefly by Saudi […]
After last year’s much-publicised spat between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia — culminating with Riyadh’s demand for early repayment of $3 billion in loans meant to shore up Islamabad’s foreign exchange reserves — tensions between the two countries have since cooled. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia appear to be in the midst of a reset of relations. Read Here | […]
Saudi Arabia is laying the foundations for another Gulf crisis – this time provoking its ally, the United Arab Emirates. Just weeks after patching up a years-long dispute with Qatar, the kingdom has announced a new plan to require all foreign businesses to have a regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia, or risk getting locked out of contracts […]
looking beyond borders 