Continental Landscape of Minorities in Asia
Many in Asia look at the Middle East with a mixture of expectation of stable energy supplies, hope for economic opportunity and concern about a potential fallout of the region’s…
Canada– Saudi Arabia: Questions about Saudi Concept of Sovereignty
The failure of Western allies to rally around Canada in its dispute with Saudi Arabia risks luring the kingdom into a false belief that economic sanctions will shield it from, if not…
Destabilising the Middle East: A Historical Perspective of US Foreign Policy
I wrote the first version of this essay in June 2014. Since then, I had over 4,000 hits on it in my blog. I decided to update it partly because…
What Happens When Arab Autocrats Left to Fend for Themselves?
It is a difficult task to explain everything about the Middle East in a short article. So what I am going to do is to present an important, yet sometimes provocative series of headlines…
What is France up to in the Middle East?
The name of the game is power politics. France was a major presence in the Middle East following the First World War, but has been on the retreat ever since,…
Terrorism: Then and Now
The year 2016 is the 100th anniversary of the Irish Easter Rebellion. Throughout the year I will try to revisit some of the lessons of Ireland’s struggle for freedom. Bombs…
Israel’s Security Myth Versus Geopolitical Realties (Part Two)
Confronting Challenges Israel is actively involved in three different protracted conflicts – or more accurately competitions – that manifest the collision of various visions for the region: (1) pacifying the…
Israel’s Security Myth Versus Geopolitical Realties (Part One)
Following Israel’s legislative elections in March 2015, US officials warned Tel Aviv not to backtrack from its commitment to the two-state solution, for if it did, the Obama administration would…
Why People Comply with Authoritarian Exploitation in the Middle East
It is more often that we hear questions such as why do people comply with authoritarian exploitation? Why don’t they rebel, reform or change the status quo? Don’t they like…
Confronting Islamism – OpEd
This summer, as the British parliament take its annual break from business, civil servants are hard at work preparing an unprecedented assault on Islamist extremism. The UK’s Counter-Extremism Strategy, to…