تركزت جميع النزاعات التاريخية والحديثة في الشرق الأوسط حول الاعتبارات الإقليمية الكلاسيكية المتعلقة بفقدان الأراضي أو استعادتها. وللخروج من هذه الدوامة، كان من الضروري الابتعاد عن أحد الأسباب الجذرية الرئيسية للنزاع: الجغرافيا. وقد تكون التغيرات الحالية في المنطقة، التي تتميز بتوجه كبير نحو تخفيف حدة التوتر واستعداد متزايد للانفصال بشكل دوري عن الحلفاء التقليديين، مؤشرات على حدوث تحول جذري عميق نحو "السياسة الكمومية".
أثار تصريح الرئيس قيس سعيد خلال خطاب ألقاه في 6 أبريل/نيسان، والذي ادعى فيه رفضه للشروط، أو "الإنفاذ"، كما أسماها، المرتبطة بقرض محتمل من صندوق النقد الدولي، جدلاً واسعاً. ويبدو أن ردود الفعل على الخطاب وكذلك الإجراءات التي اتخذها المسؤولون التونسيون قبله وبعده تتعارض مع مقصده، مما تسبب في إرباك حول ما إذا كانت الصفقة لا تزال قائمة. وفي الوقت نفسه، اعتبر آخرون الخطاب علامة على أن تونس تدرس بجدية إمكانية وجود بدائل لتمويل صندوق النقد الدولي أو حتى إعادة توجيه جيوسياسي.
A Reassessment of American Policy Toward Taliban Afghanistan
It has been long enough since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 for us to reach some conclusions about how the regime intends to govern and the policy options this presents. For a variety of reasons the U.S. now finds itself drawn into several areas of policy in Afghanistan and trying to decide what form and degree of engagement with the Taliban government can best advance American interests.
Getting ahead of the Middle East’s climate refugee conundrum
Over the coming decades, the worsening effects of climate change will increasingly displace many millions of vulnerable people in the Middle East and North Africa, and many of these refugees will attempt to relocate to the Global North. To avert such a monumental looming problem requires pragmatic solutions and their swift implementation.
Fish Farmers in the Nile River Delta: Empty Lakes and Dirty Waters
Egyptian fish farmers are facing mounting pressures: Year after year, their fish are getting smaller and less healthy, their production decreases, and they are forced to take out loans they are later unable to pay back. The Egyptian government’s recent efforts to invest heavily in aquaculture, though intended to address future food shortages, may only worsen the position of local fish farmers in the Nile Delta by exacerbating the effects of urbanization and climate change while undercutting prices.
When Saudi Arabia suddenly announced in early April that it would reduce its oil production by 500,000 bpd, followed shortly thereafter by several other OPEC+ members, bringing the total cut to 1.1 million bpd, Japan was greatly concerned. In spite of Japan’s serious efforts to work toward a carbon-neutral society, the country is still heavily dependent on oil, the overwhelming majority of which comes from the Persian Gulf.
It has been an accepted fact that ISIS ceased being a territory-controlling entity in Syria after its March 2019 defeat in the town of Baghouz. Yet it is perhaps time to reevaluate this perspective on the group and its insurgent trajectory in the country. While recent massacres of civilians in central Syria have refocused some international attention on the desert region, known as the Badia, the renewed widespread battles between militants and regime security forces that have occurred in parallel to these attacks have gone unnoticed.
في الشرق الأوسط، تسعى دول الخليج - من خلال العمل المشترك أو بشكل فردي - إلى تحقيق إنجازات علمية وتجارية جديدة في مختلف مجالات صناعة الفضاء. وترتبط هذه الطموحات بآثار جيوسياسية كبيرة، حيث يتفاوض عدد متزايد من الدول الفضائية حول قطاع حساس وذو قوة متزايدة.
Naturalized Syrians are in the spotlight ahead of Turkey’s upcoming elections
The most consequential elections in Turkey’s recent history are less than a month away, set to be held on May 14. While the more than 200,000 Syrians who have been granted Turkish citizenship since their arrival in the wake of the Syrian war will not play a significant role in determining the outcome given their numbers, migration is a top campaign issue, putting them at the heart of the vote.
Composing this bricolage of most frequented places is to identify with the environment. Each of the works in this exhibition strives to enliven such connections by looking anew and afresh. Whether considering the lives lived in the temporal or spatial shadows cast by unrest, migration, and industry, or taking a long view of history or an attentive approach to an immediate setting, new relations are found.
The judicial “reform” will make things worse, but Israel’s Supreme Court has long failed Palestinian citizens
Over the past several months, the eyes of the world have been on the massive demonstrations in Israel against the Netanyahu government’s proposed judicial “reform.” Even though Palestinian citizens of Israel are likely to be the group most affected by the proposed changes, they have been notable for their absence, for the most part, from the protests. While Jewish citizens are worried about what the proposed changes might mean for Israel’s judiciary and the future of its democracy, the Supreme Court and the legal system more broadly have long failed to protect the rights of the country’s Palestinian citizens.
Passover, Ramadan, and Easter coincide this year, a phenomenon that only occurs a few times a century. The alignment of these Jewish, Muslim, and Christian holy days comes at a time when dialogue between the three faiths offers a glimmer of hope for a conflict-stricken Middle East.
Small-scale LNG as a solution for Saudi Arabia’s environmental and fuel supply problems
The development of small-scale LNG and the domestic deployment of LNG as a transport and power-generation fuel could help to lower Saudi Arabia’s carbon footprint as well as improve air quality by reducing vehicle exhaust.
President Theodore Roosevelt said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”1 Roosevelt used the image of the big stick to popularize his philosophy, but he offered a subtler interpretation in other venues. It represented a quiet threat that would only rarely need to be used if accompanied by steady diplomacy.
Iran-Iraq competition in regional maritime and overland transit corridors
In recent years, Iraq has become one of the leading destinations for Chinese investments in the Middle East and a crucial link in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. To capitalize on its geostrategic location and central position within the Chinese BRI, Iraq is seeking to develop a sprawling new 54-square-kilometer port project, known as al-Faw Grand Port, which will reduce the country’s reliance on Arab Gulf ports and overland transit from Iran and Turkey. The project also underscores Iraq’s growing economic rivalry with neighboring Iran, as both countries seek to carve out a similar niche in handling regional transit traffic.
