Amanda Lee The Middle East has entered a dangerous phase in which military superiority no longer guarantees political victory, alliances offer diminishing assurances of protection, and the costs of regional confrontation are increasingly borne by Arab societies. What began as an effort by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to reshape …
Read More »How Should the Arab World Respond to Israel’s New Security Doctrine?
Dr. Shehab Al-Makahleh On October 18, Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the outlines of a new Israeli security doctrine built around military superiority, pre-emptive action and the principle of striking perceived threats before they mature. Five days later, an attack in Hebron that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three …
Read More »The Will to Fight: What Military Power Cannot Guarantee
By Roya Bagher A proposal to forgive student debt in exchange for enlistment in a potential US ground force against Iran raises a fundamental question about the relationship between military power and public willingness to fight. If such a proposal gains traction, it would suggest that the challenge …
Read More »The Diplomacy of Balance: Iraq’s Bid to Reclaim Its Regional Role
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi’s tour from Riyadh to Kuwait, Beirut, and Damascus is more than a series of routine diplomatic visits. It reflects Baghdad’s attempt to reposition itself in a region where security concerns increasingly overlap with economic interests, traditional alliances are being reshaped, and regional …
Read More »When AI Becomes the Strategist, War Becomes a Data Problem It Cannot Solve
Hadi Elis The United States entered its war with Iran possessing something few militaries in history have had at comparable scale: extraordinary technological superiority, an enormous intelligence architecture and increasingly sophisticated artificial-intelligence systems capable of processing information at speeds no human organization could match. Artificial intelligence has become …
Read More »Why the Trump Cabinet Opted for Existential AI Risks
By Dan Steinbock Thanks to some AI executives, the Trump administration had an opportunity to foster global AI cooperation. By contrast, it gave green light to existential risks. On September 29, 2026, President Trump convened the chief executives of several of the world’s most powerful technology companies at …
Read More »Taiwan at the Trump-Xi Summit: Red Line or Bargaining Chip?
Tamara Berro When Chinese President Xi Jinping met Donald Trump in May, Taiwan was at the centre of the most difficult question in the relationship between the world’s two largest powers. Xi described the island as the most important and sensitive issue in Sino-American relations. He also warned …
Read More »When a Party Learns to Live with Its Leader
Dr. Shehab Al-Makahleh George Orwell’s 1984 is often read as a warning about dictatorship. It is also a study of something subtler: how institutions and ordinary people can gradually adapt themselves to a political system they once regarded as unacceptable. The machinery of Orwell’s Oceania does not depend …
Read More »Poll Results Confirm Palestinian Support for a Two-State Solution, Gaza Residents’ Determination to Stay, and Israel’s Obstruction of Peace
Contrary to the Israeli narrative, Palestinians are pragmatic, willing to make concessions, and supportive of a two-state solution — and this includes Palestinians in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This is the central finding of a new Arab Barometer survey published in Foreign Affairs, conducted …
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