EU Energy Security & the Maghreb
North Africa and the Sahel Program Director Intissar Fakir speaks to Alberto Rizzi – pan-European fellow at the Rome Office of the European Council on Foreign Relations – about existing and future energy partnerships between the European Union and the Maghreb. In the wake of energy market disruption caused by the conflict in Ukraine, what alternative fuel sources are the EU looking towards – and how does this align with current production capacities in Maghreb countries?
Eastern Mediterranean gas discoveries, progress, and what to watch in 2023
The challenge of developing export strategies for the offshore natural gas resources concentrated in the Eastern Mediterranean predates the Russo-Ukrainian war. Yet over the course of 2022, Europe’s intensifying energy crisis created a new and more immediate incentive to solve those export challenges, despite a great deal of work still to be done.
Monday Briefing: Assad’s narco-state enriches itself as Syrians face a spiraling economic and humanitarian crisis
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
What the United Nations’ 6th Climate Assessment tells us about the Mediterranean’s climate future
The latest U.N. IPCC report details the alarming changes that Mediterranean countries will experience in the coming decades due to climate change, highlighting three critical areas — warming and droughts, declining ecosystems, as well as socioeconomic and public health risks.
10 key events and trends in the Middle East and North Africa in 2022
Ten of the most important or far-reaching events and trends that dominated the MENA region in 2022.
Monday Briefing: Tech a top item on Xi’s visit to Saudi Arabia
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
As terrorist groups expand in the Sahel, is Algeria the missing link?
Over the past two years, the steady expansion of terrorist and fundamentalist threats in the Sahel has not gotten the attention it deserves. Algeria’s regional diplomatic clout, military might, and experience in fighting terrorism could help Sahelian states ward off an imminent political and security collapse.
Monday Briefing: Sino-Gulf ties in the spotlight as President Xi prepares for Saudi visit
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Morocco and Israel: Economic Opportunities, Military Incentives, and Moral Hazards
The December 2020 Moroccan-Israeli normalization deal has evolved from a vehicle enabling Morocco to gain long-sought U.S. recognition of its claims on Western Sahara to a broader strategic partnership with Israel. But the relationship further strains relations with neighboring rival Algeria.
Dispatches from Sharm el-Sheikh: Reviewing COP27 from the MENA perspective
Participating in COP27 provided a unique opportunity to view the proceedings firsthand and evaluate the effectiveness of the meeting in advancing critical climate priorities that can alter the alarming trajectory of future climate change.
Monday Briefing: As Qatar World Cup begins, controversies highlight limits of sportswashing
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
US priorities in Sudan: Stability or democracy?
Sudan is geostrategically important to U.S. interests in both Africa and the Middle East. The country’s military rulers, Lt.-Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy Lt.-Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (also known as “Hemedti”), are banking on that fact as they seek to press the Biden administration to focus its Sudan policy on stability, rather than supporting calls for democracy.
Monday Briefing: Biden’s lightning diplomacy in Egypt
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Monday Briefing: COP27 kicks off with good news, but there’s a long struggle ahead
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.