Shifting Sands: Chinese encroachment in Central Asia and challenges to US supremacy in the Gulf
China and Russia are as much allies as they are rivals.
A joint Tajik-Chinese
military exercise in
a Tajik region bordering on China’s troubled
north-western region of Xinjiang...
China’s risky bets
China’s infrastructure and energy driven US$1 trillion Belt and Road
initiative involves risky bets across a swath of land populated by often
illiberal or autocratic governments...
Climate change: UAE and Russia eye geopolitical and commercial mileage
Climate change, much like war, could prove to be a geopolitical and
commercial gold mine. At least, that is the take of DP World, Dubai’s...
Algerian soccer success is a double-edged sword
It took Algeria barely two weeks to charge Algerian soccer
fan Samir Sardouk and sentence him to a year in jail for harming the national...
Muslim causes vs national interest: Muslim nations make risky bets
Saudi attitudes towards the plight of thousands of illegal Rohingya in
the kingdom fleeing persecution in Myanmar and squalid Bangladeshi refugee
camps help explain Saudi support...
Tension in the Gulf: Not just maritime powder kegs
A recent interview in which Baloch National Movement chairman Khalil Baloch legitimized
recent militant attacks on Iranian, Chinese and Pakistani targets is remarkable
less for what...
UAE withdraws from Yemen: Managing alliances and reputational threats
A United Arab Emirates decision to withdraw the bulk of
its forces from Yemen shines a spotlight
on hard realities underlying Middle Eastern geopolitics.
The pullback suggests...
Vladimir Putin vs Liberalism 1:0
Certain that Western and liberal democratic leaders would limit
themselves to verbal denials, Russian president Vladimir Putin knew he was
kicking into an open goal when...
FATF Ultimata to Iran and Pakistan threaten to cloud China’s FATF presidency
China’s chairmanship of an international anti-money laundering and
terrorism finance watchdog could put to the test the cohesiveness of global
efforts to counter political violence with...
The Middle East: Barrelling towards a nuclear and ballistic missiles arms race
The Middle East is barrelling towards a nuclear and
ballistic missiles arms race.
The race is being aided and abetted by a US policy
that views the...