Can a new EU strategy bring EU and Gulf actors closer together?
Relations between the EU and the Gulf countries have been on life support for a long time. The two sides have become experts at talking past each other, blithely skidding from crisis to crisis. But on May 18, the EU made the first serious effort in a long time to bridge this gap, by introducing a proposal for a “Strategic Partnership with the Gulf.”
Protecting Gulf waters through regional cooperation
In collaboration with regional and international experts and organizations, the Middle East Institute is implementing a program aimed at promoting regional approaches to solve climactic and anthropogenic challenges to the waters of the Gulf.
From rivalry to partnership: Managing climate risks through regional collaboration
Countries across the region face similar climate risks and impacts, but tensions and socio-economic challenges have hampered regional collaboration and collective efforts to tackle climate change. One way to address this problem and to circumvent poor policy coordination is through technical research and knowledge-sharing.
The Dorra Field: Global gas market impact or bellwether for regional relations?
The Dorra Gas Field, located in shallow waters offshore in the northern Arabian Gulf, lies at the junction of competing territorial claims by Kuwait, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. With the growing gas demand in these countries, any production will be absorbed into the domestic network and the impact of production on the global gas and LNG market will be insignificant. However, the development of the field, if it occurs, may serve as a bellwether for regional relations.
A portal to the past: The restoration of Erbil’s architectural heritage
When architect Mustafa Mofaq first started working on heritage restoration at Erbil’s citadel last year, it was with a great sense of personal connection. “My great-grandfather had a house here,” explains the 27-year-old, who is employed by an EU-UNESCO partnership aimed at supporting livelihoods through cultural heritage development in Iraq and Jordan.
Making the most of Iran’s reserves will require it to develop shared fields like Dorra/Arash, a gas field located offshore in the northern Gulf, where Iran must vie with competing claims from neighboring Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In the past, Iran has often neglected its joint gas fields as a result of sanctions and focused instead on meeting its rapidly growing domestic needs through exploiting non-shared fields, but the country says this must change going forward.
The CMF-153: Rebuilding US-GCC confidence through maritime security
Efforts to restore confidence between the U.S. and the Arab Gulf states took a first step with the recent formation of a new naval task force, known as the Combined Maritime Forces-153 (CMF-153), to improve maritime security in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb, and the Gulf of Aden, including the hotspot of Yemen. Established in mid-April, the new task force intends to target weapons smuggling for Ansar Allah, as the Houthi militias are officially known, as well as human trafficking and the drug trade.
The UAE's food-security plans have made it a global market player
The two-month war between Russia and Ukraine has disrupted global food supplies, exposing the fragile state of food security across much of the Middle East and North Africa. Unlike those Mena nations struggling to secure cargoes of wheat and other staples, the UAE is in a better position, even though it currently imports 80 to 90 per cent of its food, thanks to its forward-looking food strategy during the past several years.
In February 2022, the Council of the European Union gathered in Brussels to discuss the extension of the Coordinated Maritime Presence (CMP) concept to the North-Western Indian Ocean. Its decisions constituted a rare consensus among E.U. member states that Gulf maritime security is a strategic interest for Europe as a whole.
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Dr. Haider al-Abadi joins the program to discuss the country’s fight against ISIS, Iraqi politics and the challenges of reform. Dr. al-Abadi has a new book out, entitled “Impossible Victory: How Iraq Defeated ISIS” (Biteback Publishing, April 2022).
We cannot ignore Syria’s emergence as a narco-state
Syria has emerged in recent years as a narco-state of regional and possibly global significance. Having destroyed much of the country, crippled the national economy, and reduced itself to pariah status, Syria’s regime and core components of its security apparatus have fronted a secretive industrial complex for the manufacture of a popular amphetamine known as Captagon.
