Russia-CIS

Eng. Saleem Al-Batayneh More than six years ago, Jordan’s Economic and Social Council issued a warning in its landmark report The State of the Nation. It concluded that Jordan was suffering from a compounded, accumulated crisis—multi-layered, deeply interconnected, and inseparable in its economic and social dimensions. These overlapping …

Dr. Shehab Al-Makahleh In the final week of January 2026, the Kremlin was unusually crowded. Russian President Vladimir Putin received a succession of leaders from the Arab world, held calls with regional rivals, and quietly reinforced Moscow’s image as a power that speaks to everyone—at a time when …

Bridget Toomey A pro-Iran government in Baghdad will compromise US development plans for Iraq. The man Iraq’s Shia leadership picked as their candidate to lead the country, former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, won’t get an American nod of approval. Maliki was announced on January 24, two and a …

Jessup Kim It has been over two years since the start of the Gazan War and the ensuing genocide against the Palestinians living there. Earlier this week, the United States unveiled a plan for the development of Gaza, with seaside resorts, skyscrapers, and industrial centers. The plan exposes …

Liza Gallard The repeated military threats issued by Washington against Tehran appear less a prelude to war and more a mirror reflecting a strategic impasse. The United States has reached a point where it neither possesses the appetite to launch a war nor the ability to retreat openly. …

By Dr. Shehab Al‑Makahleh When undersea telecommunications cables are damaged, investigators instinctively look for ships, anchors, or evidence of sabotage. That script has played out repeatedly in the Baltic Sea, where severed cables and damaged seabed infrastructure—alongside gas pipelines—have triggered vessel inspections and heightened concern over gray‑zone coercion …

Donald Trump has been leading the United States as its president since January 2025. Washington’s priority is to Make America Great Again (MAGA). Trump’s tariffs have rippled through many economies from Latin America through the Asian region to the continent of Africa. Trump’s Davos speech has explicitly revealed …

In a surprising development, President Vladimir Putin has indicated that Russia is prepared to donate $1 billion from its frozen U.S. assets to former President Donald Trump’s newly proposed Board of Peace—and an as-yet unspecified sum for Ukraine’s reconstruction. The move comes as Putin weighs Trump’s invitation to …

Growing geopolitical tensions and repeated export controls by Beijing have pushed rare earths and other critical minerals to the centre of global economic and security debates. China’s dominance across the mining, refining, and processing stages of these minerals has long been a strategic vulnerability for advanced economies, but …