Saudi Arabia travels back to the future with King Salman Energy Park
The launch of King Salman Energy Park, a new megaproject intended to reinforce Saudi Arabia’s position as a global energy hub, reflects a more cautious approach to economic development in the kingdom and foreshadows a less ambitious economic agenda in 2019.
In our first episode of 2019, MEI experts Paul Salem, Charles Lister, Ahmad Majidyar, Randa Slim, Gonul Tol, Robert Pearson, and Gerald Feierstein discuss the significant policy developments and announcements of the past few weeks and outline the major issues to watch in the year ahead.
A year after the defeat of ISIS in Iraq, what has changed?
On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraq’s then prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, declared victory over ISIS. However, in the year since then Iraq has continued to face critical challenges, including an internally displaced person crisis and the legitimization of militia groups.
A new crisis is brewing between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and this one is going to be much more severe and damaging than the dispute over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, there’s more than just tea brewing in the teahouse
Teahouses are at the heart of Kurdistan’s culture and are linked to the Kurdish collective memory of struggle and oppression, making them a central part of contesting narratives about progress, change, and tradition.
In our final episode of the year, host Alistair Taylor interviews several MEI scholars on the key events that transpired across the Middle East in 2018 including in the Gulf, Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan. Guests include Paul Salem, Gerald Feierstein, Alex Vatanka, Gonul Tol, and Ahmad Majidyar.
While non-Arab powers have taken the lead in the Syrian crisis so far, Damascus will need to restore political, economic, and diplomatic ties with regional Arab states as it moves into the phase of postwar reconstruction and development.
New OPEC+ deal shows Saudis’ oil-market grip continues to slip
While OPEC and Russia-led non-OPEC members agreed to cut oil production last week by 1.2 million bpd, Riyadh’s ability to control the cartel and global oil prices is waning.
Saudi-Tunisian relations: Balancing fiscal support and foreign policy
While Tunisia remains geographically and politically distant from Saudi Arabia, its economic troubles may offer an opportunity for the kingdom to leverage fiscal aid to secure stronger bilateral ties.
Giorgio Cafiero, CEO and founder of Gulf State Analytics, and F. Gregory Gause, head of the Department of International Affairs at Texas A&M University, join host Jerry Feierstein to discuss the state of GCC relations amid the Qatar dispute and other crises heading into the next GCC Summit.
The GCC Riyadh summit: Beginning of the end of the Qatar crisis?
The upcoming GCC summit in Saudi Arabia offers an opportunity to bring the opposing sides to the table, but it is far from clear what will come out of the meeting
Monday Briefing: Optics and geo-economics at the G20
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts discuss recent and upcoming events including MBS’ lukewarm reception at the G20 summit, plans for a UN-hosted Western Sahara roundtable, and Qatar’s decision to leave OPEC.
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts discuss recent and upcoming events including the Iraq-Kurdistan pipeline deal, how the YPG partnership affects US-Turkey ties, and the new Russia-Turkey gas pipeline.
