Skip to content
Beyond a Tacit Security Regime: Constraints on Saudi-Israeli Relations
Israel’s relationship with the Gulf states has been characterised as hostile since the former’s establishment as a state. Yet the shifting regional dynamics following the 2011 Arab Spring have dramatically affected these relations. In particular, relations between Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)—an Arab state which sees itself as the leader of the […]
Book Review: “Sultan Qaboos and Modern Oman, 1970-2020” by Allen James Fromherz and Abdulrahman al-Salimi, eds.
In 2020, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) lost two heads of state, Kuwaiti Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah and Omani Sultan Qaboos bin Sa’id al-Sa’id. Owing to their prominent roles in regional diplomacy, the passing of these two leaders has been aptly described as the deaths of the Gulf’s “mediators-in-chief.”[i] The new edited volume Sultan Qaboos and Modern […]
Rapprochement and Realignment in the Middle East
For years, the Middle East and North Africa has been viewed as a region beset by political upheaval and military conflict. Yet a decade after the Arab Spring provoked uprisings in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and Syria, it appears that the region is ready to adjust course. Wounded by protracted war, tit-for-tat escalation, and the […]
Domestic Political Chaos Is Not the Only Thing Happening in Iraq
It appears that calm has returned to Iraq after the reported intervention of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country’s chief and widely respected Shia cleric. In recent weeks, violence had occurred in and near parliament, which has been unable to implement last October’s election results. The clashes involved demonstrators and armed forces loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, […]
Why Iran Doubts Joe Biden’s Jerusalem Declaration
The Jerusalem Declaration on the US-Israel Strategic Partnership commits the United States and its top Middle East allies “to use all elements of their national power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” Whilst hailed by some observers as a dramatic policy commitment by the United States, the Islamist Republic is unimpressed. The regime does not […]
The Shaping of the Persian Gulf Security Order
The Persian Gulf is of great importance, both in terms of energy resources and because it is a strategic passage for regional trade. Fundamentally, the internal security of countries in any region is inseparable from the wider security of that region, while the interests of supra-regional powers are also closely related to the region’s security […]
Book Review – “Street-Level Governing: Negotiating the State in Urban Turkey” by Elise Massicard
Elise Massicard, Street-Level Governing: Negotiating the State in Urban Turkey (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2022) During the last century, Turkey has seen the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924, the first democratic elections in 1950, multiple coups in the following decades, the rise to power of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2003, and the move from […]
Can Lebanon and Israel avoid war by solving their maritime border dispute?
Lebanon and Israel are stuck in indirect negotiations over where the lines should be drawn with respect to their maritime borders and the scope of each state’s rights to explore for natural resources. But will a deal help ease historic hostilities between the two neighbors, thereby reducing the risk of another destructive war? The United […]
Why Hamas’ Russian diplomacy initiative could bother Israel
In early May, Moscow accepted the request of a visiting Hamas delegation to mediate between rival Palestinian factions. This diplomatic achievement gives Hamas new ways to challenge Israel; both in consolidating its own political standing in the Palestinian territories and by shifting Russia’s views on the merits of its security cooperation with Tel Aviv. Hamas’ […]
Climate Change and the Electric Future: Key Trends and Likely Winners
Introduction The region’s cross-border electricity trade efficiency deficits pose challenges. Climate change is driving transformations towards decarbonization. Almost all technical studies of decarbonized futures conclude that a clean future will be an electric one. In the near future, the world’s electric grids will need to store, and supply, double or triple the amount of electricity […]