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Middle East

Trump has shot the UN: Only time will tell if it survives

Video game enthusiasts like me will know what a double tap is. But for any non-gamer/hunters out there, a double tap is a shooting technique where two shots are fired in rapid succession at the same target and can also describe a second fatal shot once the enemy …

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Remaking the World Order: No Small Feat

The United States needs to redefine its role in world affairs, what does that mean and what will it take? The liberal rules-based international order it built and sustained in the years after the Second World War is disintegrating at an accelerating pace. After a period of comity …

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Trump 2.0 and Palestinians: From Reversal to Repression and Deportations

In my new book, The Fall of Israel (2025), I examine the activities of all US postwar administrations regarding the Israelis and Palestinians. The first Trump administration did not just differ from its precursors. It turned upside down five decades of US policies regarding Palestinians. In the next …

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The Imminent Consequences of Trump’s Executive Orders

In the past decade, the U.S.-led geopolitics and trade/tech wars have undermined international cooperation setting the stage for stagnation in global economic prospects. Trump 2.0 will escalate the status quo, weaponizing executive orders in the name of “national security.” Over half a decade ago, I first warned about …

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Syria and the Levant: Building Stability Amidst Shifting Ambitions

The Levant has long been a stage upon which the drama of history has unfolded- a region where empires collided, faiths converged, and civilizations either flourished or crumbled. Far from being a mere relic of the past, this ancient nexus remains a cornerstone of global security and economic …

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Jordan’s Political Quagmire: Reform or Relapse?

Eng. Saleem Al Batayneh A society that fails to ask the right questions cannot expect to arrive at meaningful answers, let alone true knowledge. In Jordan, questions critical to our democracy are either silenced or confined far from the decision-making centers that shape our future. Chaos reigns where …

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Is Donald Trump a Great President?

Is Donald Trump a great president? That’s the question posed by John F. Harris in Politico, less in the spirit of endorsing Trump than suggesting that he is nothing less than “the greatest figure of his age.” Trump has now dominated American politics for over a decade. The Biden administration increasingly …

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Global Risks 2025: The Triple Threat of Conflict, Climate, and Misinformation

The 20th edition of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report, released today, reveals an increasingly fractured global landscape, where escalating geopolitical, environmental, societal and technological challenges threaten stability and progress. While economic risks have less immediate prominence in this year’s survey results, they remain a concern, interconnected …

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The World in 2024

We leave 2024. January 2024 feels like yesterday. Many of our experiences have been wonderful, or sorrowful; some will be forgotten and some will remain with us forever. Such patterns reoccur annually. Some tragedies stem from human errors, deliberate or accidental. Time flies. Let us consider the major …

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