Middle East

There is something telling about a smile in Washington. Not the ceremonial kind that accompanies routine diplomacy, but the carefully staged image of acceptance—the kind that signals a transaction already agreed upon behind closed doors. Reports of meetings between associates of Ahmed al-Sharaa and members of the United States Congress suggest more …

Hadi Elis For much of the past two decades, Turkish politics has been structured around internal antagonisms. The governing project of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan relied on mobilising domestic fault lines—most notably tensions with Kurdish movements and the secularist establishment—to consolidate power and reconfigure the republic’s ideological orientation. Today, however, that …

Thomas Cavanna After 16 years in power, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán suffered a massive defeat in Hungary’s April 12 parliamentary election. Many observers have described the outcome as a stern ideological rebuke of the Trump administration, which lobbied heavily in Orbán’s favor, and have argued that Orbán’s defeat …

Mohammad Nosseir A conflict that has lasted nearly eight decades may require an approach different from the recurring cycles of war that all parties have pursued. The war in Gaza following the October 7 attack demonstrated that making life unbearable for Gaza’s civilians will not end this long-standing …

Sibgha Hadi Africa has shown itself in the past week again as a continent of dramatic contrasts, in which moral leadership, political turmoil, and financial aspiration come into collision in a manner that would not only chart its own future but also that of the world. The continent …

 Dr. Shehab Al-Makahleh In moments of systemic rupture—when geopolitics collides with capital flows—the illusion of a neutral global financial order dissolve. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has long functioned as a pivotal stabiliser within that order, recycling hydrocarbon surpluses into global markets, particularly those of the United States. Yet the intensifying …

Rafaeil Christiano The world is fixated on oil prices again. Tankers, benchmarks, and barrels dominate the headlines. But this time, the real shock is not only flowing through energy markets—it is quietly seeping into the soil. What is at stake in the Strait of Hormuz is not just …

Dr. Nadya Helmi China’s entry into the tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz in April 2026 was no longer merely cautious diplomacy or statements of condemnation but rather a direct strategic intervention to protect its vital economic interests. This signals the beginning of a larger, but risky, political …

At first glance, the latest escalation involving Iran in the Gulf may appear to be yet another familiar cycle of regional instability. But that reading is dangerously outdated. What we are witnessing today is not a temporary disruption—it is a structural rupture in the global system. The Gulf …