Advancing Stability and Opportunity in the Middle East and North Africa
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MBS’s Losing Bet
Mohammed bin Salman gambled Saudi Arabia’s security on friendship with Iran and has now gone silent.
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How MBS’s Built a Neo-Colonial Order
For nearly a decade, Mohammed bin Salman has worked on his facade. In public he is the reformer: Vision 2030,…
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Operation Epic Fury and the Unravelling of Middle Eastern Order
Five weeks into the most consequential military confrontation in the Middle East since 2003, the war between the United States,…
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Oman’s Diplomacy Tested: Neutrality in a Region at War
For decades, the Sultanate of Oman cultivated a foreign policy built on sustained neutrality and active mediation. Under Sultan Qaboos…
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Bahrain’s Economy Under Siege: Fiscal Fragility Meets Regional War
Bahrain entered 2026 carrying a debt burden the International Monetary Fund placed at approximately 133 per cent of GDP, with…
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MBS’s Neocolonial Push Amidst the Iran-US Firestorm
The missiles hitting Iranian soil since March 2026 are not Mohammed bin Salman’s (MBS) weapons. They don’t need to be,…
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Seasons of light: Ramadan through ancient travellers’ eyes
From Mecca and Damascus to Cairo, travellers across the centuries recorded the rhythms of Ramadan, documenting lantern-lit mosques, night prayers,…
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Iran’s Oil State Without Its Architects
The primary threat to Iran’s stability in the medium term may be internal: a slow fragmentation of the elite networks…
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Iran’s Kurds: teased by opportunity, tethered by memory
The US-Israeli bombing of Iran has led to talk of the country’s Kurds joining the fight against the regime in…
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MBS’s Export of Wahhabism
Colonialism and imperialism have never required an army to be effective. If you take a quick look at history’s most…
