Peter Lvov It seems that Saudi Arabia has started to undergo the transformation various experts predicted. Those became obvious when the sitting king Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud replaced his deceased elder brother Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in January 2015, and made a number of quite unusual …

Victor Mikhin The lifting of sanctions against Iran is, according to many political scientists, a significant compromise that postpones the risk of a global armed conflict in the region. It also means that in the nearest future the Iranian market, desperate for foreign investment and advanced technologies, will …

Jason Ditz ISIS has carried out several attacks on oil installations this month, sparking the White House to seriously considering yet another war in the Middle East. With several Pentagon officials, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford and Press Secretary Peter Cook …

Prof. Muhammad Sahimi Ever since Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for president, she has tried to present herself as a progressive whose “inevitable” election will be a historic moment for the United States, and perhaps even the world. After Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders entered the race and began …

Mel Gurtov The growing rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran is reportedly causing great consternation in US policy making circles.  Once again, US officials are called upon to decide whether to support an ally that isn’t behaving in accord with US interests, significantly modify the relationship, or abandon …

Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy The concept of using ‘counter-narratives’ to counter extremist propaganda is a strategy aimed to provide alternate narratives, to counter the narratives employed by extremist groups – the Islamic State (IS) especially – to attract, condition, and to recruit potentially vulnerable individuals, especially youth. Given the high …

Zayd Alisa Saudi Arabia, one year after king Salman acceded to the throne and 9-months after appointing his favourite – young and inexperienced – son, Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) Deputy Crown Prince (DCP), is grappling with not merely an increasingly relentless power struggle, compounded by an unprecedented devastating …

Over the past several decades, China has risen to become a prominent player on the world stage with global operations and interests far from its shores. The People’s Liberation Army reorients itself toward China’s evolving priorities in all spheres from weapons acquisitions to the army organization. The growing …