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James M. Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg, and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer. Email: jmdorsey@questfze.com
China looms large as a potentially key player alongside Russia and Iran in President Bashas al-Assad’s post-war Syria. With Russia and Iran lack
Read More »Europe is progressively being sucked into the Middle East and North Africa’s myriad conflicts. As if wars on its doorstep in Libya and Syria wer
Read More »China is contemplating greater political engagement in the Middle East in what would constitute a break with its longstanding effort to avoid being su
Read More »Rare polling of public opinion in Saudi Arabia suggests that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may be more sensitive to domestic public opinion on fore
Read More »A rift between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia throws into sharp relief deepening fissures in the Muslim world. Coupled with the establishment of diplomatic
Read More »A close read of the agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel suggests that the Jewish state has won far more than diplomatic recognition.
Read More »An Emirati offer to invest in Israel’s most controversial soccer club could serve as a figurative litmus test of hopes that Arab recognition of
Read More »Saudi Arabia has taken multiple steps to polish its tarnished image in advance of this weekend’s hosting of the virtual summit of the G20 that g
Read More »Public debates about China’s Middle East policy are as much internal Chinese discussions as they are indications of where Beijing’s thinki
Read More »A projected sharp reduction in trade between the United States and China in the next two years coupled with moves to diversify supply chains potential
Read More »Religion scholar Esra Ozyurek has a knack for identifying trends that ring warning bells about where Europe is heading. She points to German Muslims,
Read More »A little acknowledged provision of the 2015 international agreement that curbed Iran’s nuclear program explains jockeying by the United States a
Read More »Two decades of snail pace revisions of Saudi schoolbooks aimed at removing supremacist references to Jews, Christians, and Shiites suggest a willingne
Read More »Recent clashes in the Iranian province of Sistan and Balochistan highlight Iran’s vulnerabilities as well as its inability to overcome trauma an
Read More »Saudi Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, a popular but controversial religious scholar who has been mostly in solitary confinement since 2017, appeared in court
Read More »In a sign of the times, Turkish schoolbooks have replaced Saudi texts as the bull’s eye of criticism of supremacist and intolerant curricula in
Read More »Former Crown Prince Hamzah bin Hussein has papered over a rare public dispute in the ruling Jordanian family in a move that is unlikely to resolve lon
Read More »Former Crown Prince Hamzah bin Hussein has papered over a rare public dispute in the ruling Jordanian family in a move that is unlikely to resolve lon
Read More »Eager to enhance its negotiating leverage with the United States and Europe, Iran is projecting imminent membership of the China-led Shanghai Cooperat
Read More »Saudi Arabia has stepped up efforts to outflank the United Arab Emirates and Qatar as the Gulf’s commercial, cultural, and/or geostrategic hub.
Read More »Recent announcements by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of plans to turn the kingdom into a transportation and logistics hub that connects continents
Read More »US President Joe Biden may have little appetite for Israeli-Palestinian peace making but seems determined to prevent some third parties from exploitin
Read More »The rise of hard-line President-elect Ebrahim Raisi has prompted some analysts to counterintuitively suggest that it could pave the way for reduced re
Read More »China may have no short-term interest in contributing to guaranteeing security in parts of a swath of land stretching from Central Asia to the East co
Read More »A recent unprecedented alliance between Muslims and Evangelicals takes on added significance in a world in which human rights are on the defensive, re
Read More »The United States and Iran seem to be hardening their positions in advance of a resumption of negotiations to revive a 2015 international nuclear agre
Read More »A recent analysis of Middle Eastern states’ interventionist policies suggests that misguided big power approaches have fuelled a vicious cycle o
Read More »This month’s indictment of a billionaire, one-time advisor and close associate of former US President Donald J. Trump, on charges of operating a
Read More »Boasting an almost 1,000-kilometre border with Iran and a history of troubled relations between the Iranians and Sunni Muslim militants, including the
Read More »Boasting an almost 1,000-kilometre border with Iran and a history of troubled relations between the Iranians and Sunni Muslim militants, including the
Read More »Taliban advances in Afghanistan shift the Central Asian playing field on which China, India and the United States compete with rival infrastructure-dr
Read More »Israel’s first post-Netanyahu government is seeking to rebuild fractured relations with the Jewish Diaspora and rebrand the country as a liberal
Read More »The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan perpetuates a paradigm of failed governance in the Muslim world based on a centuries-old alliance between Islamic
Read More »Turkish state-run television appears to have not gotten the message: Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are burying the hatchet – one of severa
Read More »Saudi and Emirati efforts to define ‘moderate’ Islam as socially more liberal while being subservient to an autocratic ruler is as much an
Read More »On their way from Tel Aviv airport to Jerusalem in 1977 then Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Yigael Yadin asked President Anwar Sadat, the first Arab le
Read More »Two separate developments involving improved relations between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and women’s sporting rights demonstrate major shifts in
Read More »Gulf States are in a pickle. They fear that the emerging parameters of a reconfigured US commitment to security in the Middle East threaten to upend a
Read More »It may not have been planned or coordinated but efforts by Middle Eastern states to dial down tensions serve as an example of what happens when big po
Read More »The future of US engagement in the Middle East hangs in the balance. Two decades of forever war in Afghanistan and continued military engagement in Ir
Read More »As Middle Eastern states attempt to manage their political and security differences, Muslim-majority countries are regrouping along a fault line that
Read More »An Indonesian promise to work with the United Arab Emirates to promote ‘moderate’ Islam raises questions of what constitutes moderation an
Read More »Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki AlFaisal Al Saud must have gotten his tenses mixed up when he asserted in a recently published memoir tha
Read More »Sudan is the exception to the rule in the United Arab Emirates’ counterrevolutionary playbook. In contrast to Egypt or Yemen, where it went out
Read More »Just in case there were any doubts, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu demonstrated with his visit to Lebanon this week that improved relations
Read More »It has been a good week for United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. Headline-grabbing, fast-paced moves reinforce the UAE's position
Read More »When seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton wore a helmet this weekend featuring the colours of the LGBTI Pride Progress Flag during the
Read More »A cursory look at Saudi Arabia and Iran suggests that emphasizing human rights in US foreign policy may complicate relations but has little impact on
Read More »The United States has signalled in advance of next week’s Summit for Democracy that it is unlikely to translate lip service to adherence to huma
Read More »Saudi Islamic affairs minister Abdullatif bin Abdulaziz al-Sheikh has ordered imams in the kingdom to identify one of the world’s largest Muslim
Read More »Footballers with diametrically opposed views on homosexuality and alcohol consumption have sparked heated controversy about Islamic mores and human an
Read More »Increasingly, compliance with US sanctions against Iran could emerge as a litmus test of the United Arab Emirates’ close ties to the United Stat
Read More »Long banned, Christmas has finally, at least tacitly, arrived in Saudi Arabia; just don’t use the name in marketing or be ostentatious about you
Read More »Fears of a potential military conflict with Iran may have opened the door to a Saudi-Iranian dialogue against the backdrop of a rethink of US military
Read More »Qatar has begun to cleanse its schoolbooks of supremacist, racist or derogatory references as well as celebrations of violent jihad and martyrdom, acc
Read More »How sustainable is Middle Eastern détente? That is the $64,000 question. The answer is probably not. It’s not for lack of trying. Gulf St
Read More »China is manoeuvring to avoid being sucked into the Middle East’s numerous disputes amid mounting debate in Beijing on whether the People’
Read More »An Israeli NGO gives the United Arab Emirates high marks for mandating schoolbooks that teach tolerance, peaceful coexistence, and engagement with non
Read More »Europe is likely to shoulder the brunt of the fallout of a rapidly escalating crisis over Ukraine. Middle Eastern states could prove to be a close sec
Read More »Saudi efforts to negotiate an end to the Yemen war in a bid to open a dialogue with Iran could call into question continued Gulf support for US Presid
Read More »The Iranian port city of Bandar-e-Mahshahr has emerged as the scene of some of the worst violence in Iran’s brutal crackdown on recent anti-gove
Read More »At the core of US president Donald J. Trump’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran lies the belief that Iran can be forced to negotiate terms
Read More »Saudi Arabia may have been getting more than it bargained for when authorities in Khujand, Tajikistan’s second largest city, ordered that the ci
Read More »A podcast version of this story is available on Sound cloud, ITunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Tune In, Speaker, Pocket Casts, Tumbler, Pod bean, Au decibel,
Read More »At first glance, there is little that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an Islamist and nationalist, has in common with Dogu Perincek, a maveric
Read More »With the fate hanging in the balance of the 2015 international agreement that curbed Iran’s nuclear program, prospects for greater security and
Read More »A potential revival of the Iran nuclear accord is likely to test the sustainability of Middle Eastern efforts to dial down tensions and manage differe
Read More »Qatar's 2022 World Cup promises to benefit not only itself but also to provide an unintended economic, political, and religious soft power boon fo
Read More »The fight in this week’s Democratic primaries may have been about who confronts Donald J. Trump in November’s US presidential election, Be
Read More »The Biden administration is mulling whether to grant Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sovereign immunity in a case related to the 2018 killing o
Read More »Syria’s announcement of its first COVID-19 case highlights the public health threat posed by war zones that produce millions of refugees and dis
Read More »The Coronavirus pandemic points a finger not only at the colossal global collapse of responsible public health policy but also the importance of balan
Read More »A decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers like Russia to temporarily end a price war and cut produ
Read More »Civilizationalist leaders, who seek religious legitimacy, cater to a religious support base or initially discarded scientific advice for expedient pol
Read More »Former Qatari emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the father of the Gulf state's current ruler, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, learnt a lesson from the 19
Read More »The final run-up to the 2022 World Cup and the tournament's management is make-it-or-break-it time for Qatar. Both will determine Qatar&rsqu
Read More »By the law of unintended consequences, US President Donald J. Trump’s mix of uncritical and cynical embrace of Saudi Arabia and transactional ap
Read More »Little suggests that fabulously wealthy Gulf States and their Middle Eastern and North African beneficiaries have recognized what is perhaps the most
Read More »A controversial former security official and Abu Dhabi-based political operator, Mohammed Dahlan, has lurked for several years in the shadows of Pales
Read More »These are tough times for Saudi Arabia. The drama enveloping the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the brutal way in which it was carried o
Read More »Russia, backed by China, hoping to exploit mounting doubts in the Gulf about the reliability of the United States as the region’s sole security
Read More »Saudi plans to become a major gas exporter within a decade raise questions about what the real goal of the kingdom’s policy, and by ex
Read More »China and Russia are as much allies as they are rivals. A joint Tajik-Chinese military exercise in a Tajik region bordering on China’s troubled
Read More »A Turkish-Chinese spat as a result of Turkish criticism of China’s crackdown on Turkic Muslims in its strategic but troubled north-wes
Read More »Thought that sectarianism was a pillar of the Saud Iranian rivalry? Think again, think Kashmir where the two countries’ geopolitical rivalry and
Read More »This week’s suicide attack on Revolutionary Guards in Iran’s south-eastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, the second in two months, c
Read More »Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s three-nation tour of Asia is as much about demonstrating he stands tall – despite Western critici
Read More »It may be reading tea leaves but analysis of the walk-up to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit and his sojourn in Islamabad suggests
Read More »Alarm bells went off last September in Washington's corridors of power when John Bolton’s national security council asked the Pentagon
Read More »US President Donald J. Trump’s threat to devastate Turkey’s economy if Turkish troops attack Syrian Kurds allied with the United Stat
Read More »Pakistan is traversing minefields as it concludes agreements on investment, balance of payments support and delayed payment oil deliveries with Saudi
Read More »A heavy soup made of pulled noodles, meat, and vegetables symbolizes Central Asia’s close cultural and/or ethnic ties with China’s repress
Read More »As far as Gulf leaders are concerned, President Donald J. Trump demonstrated with his announced US troop withdrawals from Syria and Afghanistan&n
Read More »When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently declared that Turkey was “the only country that can lead the Muslim world,” he probably wasn&
Read More »A draft US Senate resolution describing Saudi policy in the Middle East as a "wrecking ball" and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as “
Read More »As Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman tours friendly Arab nations in advance of the Group of 20 (G-20) industrialized nation’s summit in Arg
Read More »When Saudi General Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz went shopping in the late 1980s for Chinese medium-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear, che
Read More »Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan lands in Beijing on November 3, the latest head of government to seek a renegotiation of commercial terms and/or f
Read More »Saudi Arabia and Turkey, despite being on opposite sides of Middle Eastern divides, are cooperating in Syria to enable youth and women to acquire skil
Read More »It’s easy to dismiss Iranian denunciations of the United States and its Middle Eastern allies as part of the Islamic republic's long-standin
Read More »An attack on a military parade in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz is likely to prompt Iranian retaliation against opposition groups at home and abr
Read More »A Financial Action Task Force (FATF) report criticizing Saudi Arabia’s anti-money laundering and terrorism finance measures puts the kingdom on
Read More »Desperate for funding to fend off a financial crisis fuelled in part by mounting debt to China, Pakistan is playing a complicated game of poker that c
Read More »Iran has raised the spectre of a US-Saudi effort to destabilize the country by exploiting economic grievances against the backdrop of circum
Read More »A possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, is proving to be much more than an effort to
Read More »With multiple Middle Eastern disputes threatening to spill out of control, United Arab Emirates minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash ac
Read More »Embattled former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was the main loser in last month’s election upset that returned Mahathir Mohamad
Read More »Lurking in the background of a Saudi-Moroccan spat over World Cup hosting rights and the Gulf crisis is a more fundamental competition for the mantle
Read More »Amid ever closer cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Israel’s military appears to be adopting the kind of sectarian anti-Shiite rhetoric that Saudi C
Read More »Mounting anger and discontent is simmering across the Arab world much like it did in the walk-up to the 2011 popular revolts that toppled fo
Read More »Argentina’s cancellation of a friendly against Israel because of Israeli attempts to exploit the match politically is likely to reverberate far
Read More »Conventional wisdom has it that China stands to benefit from the US withdrawal from the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran, particularly i
Read More »Saudi Arabia’s bitter rivalry with Iran has spilled onto Asian soccer pitches with the newly created South West Asian Football Federat
Read More »A controversy in Algeria over the growing popularity of Saudi-inspired Salafi scholars spotlights the risk governments run in a region in which they s
Read More »Subtle shifts in Chinese energy imports suggest that China may be able to exert influence in the Middle East in alternative and subtle ways that do no
Read More »Egyptian general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi won a second term virtually unchallenged in what is widely seen as a flawed election. The run-u
Read More »Protests have erupted in Iran’s oil-rich province of Khuzestan barely three months after the Islamic republic was rocked by mass anti-government
Read More »Debilitating hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran is about lots of things, not least who will have the upper hand in a swath of land stretching fro
Read More »Saudi Arabia, in an indication that it is serious about shaving off the sharp edges of its Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism, has agreed to surrender co
Read More »The Middle East has a knack for sucking external powers into its conflicts. China’s ventures into the region have shown how difficult it is to m
Read More »A Saudi draft law could constitute a first indication that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vow to return the kingdom to a moderate form of Is
Read More »Turkish allegations of Saudi, Emirati and Egyptian support for the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) threaten to turn Turkey’s military offen
Read More »Prominent US constitutional lawyer and scholar Alan M. Dershowitz raised eyebrows when he described Qatar as “the Israel of the Gulf states.&rdq
Read More »Plans to open a Salafi missionary centre in the Yemeni province of Al Mahrah on the border with Oman and Saudi Arabia raise questions about Saudi Crow
Read More »If week-long anti-government protests in Iran exposed the Islamic republic’s deep-seated economic and political problems, they also la
Read More »Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has won the first round of what could prove to be an unpreced
Read More »Kuwaiti billionaire Maan al-Sanea should have seen it coming after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman vowed to root out corruption.Embroiled in on
Read More »Long-standing Saudi efforts to dominate the pan-Arab media landscape appear to have moved into high gear with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s
Read More »