The Lebanon-Israel maritime deal: A masterstroke from Hezbollah?
Hezbollah’s approach to Lebanon’s historic maritime deal with Israel is canny because it can be interpreted in two ways. As the Lebanese government rubs its hands in anticipation of potential lucrative hydrocarbon revenues, Hezbollah has another reason to celebrate last month’s landmark maritime border deal with Israel. Soon after the breakthrough, which saw the two warring countries […]
Netanyahu’s return throws future of Israel-Gulf ties into question
Published in the Jerusalem Post
How the Middle East Thinks About Great Power Competition
Published in the National Interest
Iranian Crisis: The Regime at a Crossroads
Iranian Crisis: The Regime at a Crossroads Held on 15 November, 2022 Speakers Professor Ali Ansari | Professor of Iranian History and Founding Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews. Azadeh Pourzand |Human rights researcher and a civic entrepreneur, former editor-in-chief of Women’s Policy Journal of Harvard, John F. […]
Muqtada’s Retirement from Iraqi Politics Shows the Power of the Maraji
On 29 August 2022, Muqtada Al-Sadr, Iraq’s Shi’ite-nationalist leader, announced his permanent retirement from Iraqi politics. One of the major factors that led to this announcement was the decision by Sayyid Kadhim Al-Haeri, the Grand Ayatollah and the spiritual leader of the Sadrist Movement, to withdraw his support from Muqtada. While this is not the […]
Lebanon’s New Lawmakers and the Potential of Parliamentary Friendship Groups
In May 2022, Lebanon held parliamentary elections with a turnout of 49.2 per cent, including the votes of Lebanese expatriates living abroad[i]—a 0.5 per cent drop since 2018. Yet the electoral stakes were higher than ever for the population. A multi-layered economic calamity, a protracted political crisis, the aftermath of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, […]
Regime Legitimation in Syria: How the West Is Falling for Bashar al-Assad’s Propaganda
“Assad or no one”; “Assad or we burn the country.” This slogan, first uttered by militiamen at the onset of the Syrian Civil War, reflects Bashar al-Assad’s relation to power: in his vision, the Syrian state and the name Assad are inseparable. Historically inherited from his father’s power practice,[i] he perceives himself as the sole legitimate […]
Bahrain: Tribalism, Sectarianism, and the Challenges of the 21st Century
More than any other Arab Gulf state, Bahrain reflects the contradictions and conflicts of its past—an ossified British colonial political structure without the British. Al Khalifah rule is a byproduct of Pax Britannia—the Al Khalifah happened to be at the right place at the right time. Contemporary Bahraini stability and security challenges are rooted in the […]
Saudi Arabia is the Gulf’s Status Quo Power
Saudi Arabia has been an anchor of stability and growth in the Gulf and beyond. There are at least three reasons for this. First, as the largest economy in the Arab world, it acts as a major source of economic support for struggling Arab nations. Second, as the largest state in the Gulf region, it […]
The UAE and Qatar’s Thawing Relationship
In recent years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been on a diplomatic spree, re-normalising relations with a host of countries in the region, including Syria, Iran and Turkey, as well as formalising ties with Israel. The UAE’s reconciliation with Qatar following the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) historic al-Ula summit of January 2021 is illustrative […]