Protest emerges as a mixed blessing for World Cup host Qatar
Protest on the soccer pitch has proven to be a mixed blessing for World Cup host Qatar, exposing double standards in the Gulf state’s...
The Qatar World Cup: Soccer upsets, politics, and sensitive situations
Barely out of the starting blocks, the Qatar World Cup has already produced a fair share of upsets as well as politically and personally...
Behind lofty declarations, major Muslim and Hindu groups compete for power
As Indonesia passed the chairmanship of the Group of 20 (G-20) to India earlier this month, major Muslim and Hindu organisations, some backed by...
U.S. slow walks punitive measure against Saudi Arabia as regional tension spills into Qatar World Cup
Recent Saudi efforts to appease the Biden administration in the wake of the kingdom’s backing of last month’s OPEC+ oil production cut take on...
Ukraine war offers China opportunity fraught with pitfalls
US President Joe Biden potentially made a strategic mistake when he framed the struggle for Ukraine as a battle between democracy and autocracy. In...
Maneuvering minefields: China’s Xi contemplates visiting Saudi Arabia
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hit all the right cords when he spoke virtually with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, at a...
The Qatar World Cup: Footballing for soft power
Former Qatari emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the father of the Gulf state's current ruler, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, learnt a lesson...
The 2022 World Cup: Qatar’s Make-or-Break Moment
The final run-up to the 2022 World Cup and the tournament's management is make-it-or-break-it time for Qatar.
Both will determine Qatar’s ultimate soft power benefit...
Indonesian Muslims gamble on problematic ties to Saudi government vehicle
Nahdlatul Ulama, arguably the world’s only Muslim mass movement propagating a genuinely moderate and pluralistic form of Islam, has forged an unlikely, albeit temporary,...
The geopolitical minefields of a Turkic world
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has blown new life into Turkey’s vision of a Turkic world that stretches from Anatolia to Xinjiang in north-western China.
“Central...