Geopolitics

In the aftermath of the downing of the Su-24 by two Turkish F-16s, Turkey absolutely without doubt miscalculated on shooting down the Russian jet fighter as  Ankara thinks the act would preserve a “safe status” for Turkey from terrorist attacks by ISIS, others by being anti-Russian, beside that …

By MICHAEL CROWLEY The crisis over Saudi Arabia’s execution of a pro-Iranian Shiite cleric has brought President Barack Obama’s long-troubled relationship with the Saudi royals to a new low. U.S. officials said Obama wants to reassure Saudi Arabia that his July nuclear deal with Iran doesn’t mean that …

James Dorsey Scholars, policy pundits, policymakers, and journalists have identified any number of reasons for a crisis in the Middle East and North Africa that, starting with the 2011 popular revolts, has swept the region; toppled leaders in four countries – Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen; prompted Saudi-led …

The timetable for a Syrian political transition, which leaves President Bashar Assad in power for at least another year, will upset the United State’s traditional Arab allies, former US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey said. In December, the UN-sponsored International Syria Support Group (ISSG) reached an agreement on a …

The ISIS leader threatened attacks on Israel and called on Muslims to join the group, but his appeal largely fell flat to hundreds online. In Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s latest purported call to violence, the leader of ISIS insisted his self-declared caliphate was strong and intact, despite the erosion …

As we step into the new year, we face a world in which geopolitical and geo-economic risks are multiplying. Most of West Asia is ablaze, stoking speculation that a long Sunni-Shia war (like Europe’s Thirty Years’ War between Catholics and Protestants) could be at hand. China’s rise is …

When Saudi Arabia announced Saturday that it had executed Nimr al-Nimr, a controversial Shia cleric, international criticism was sharp and swift. Al-Nimrwas a harsh critic of the Saudi leadership, and his rhetoric occasionally contained striking similarities to that of Iranian leaders. Yet the Saudis had locked him up …

First off, Russia has assumed the key role of setting the region’s agenda, and it’s Moscow, no other country, that’s affecting the most tangible change in the Middle East region. This development didn’t come out of nowhere, as despite the surprised reaction of many observers, Russia had been …

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya After shooting down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M tactical bomber jet operating in Syrian airspace, in early December 2015 the Turkish government sent a heavily armed battalion to the Zilkan military base in Iraq. This move ignited tensions between Ankara and the Iraqi federal government, which …