The Saudi-Moroccan spat: Competing for the mantle of moderate Islam
Lurking in the background of a Saudi-Moroccan spat over World Cup hosting rights and the Gulf crisis is a more fundamental competition for the...
Morocco may have lost the World Cup but could lead the way in protest
Mounting anger and discontent is simmering across the Arab world much like it did in the walk-up to the 2011 popular revolts that toppled...
Israel adopts abandoned Saudi sectarian logic
Amid ever closer cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Israel’s military appears to be adopting the kind of sectarian anti-Shiite rhetoric that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed...
Saudi Arabia drags geopolitical baggage on to the World Cup pitch
Saudi Arabia has much at stake when its national soccer team enters the pitch for the opening match of the 2018 World Cup in...
Whither the Kurds?
Palestinians have long been known for a history of missing opportunities. By contrast, Kurds spread across several Middle Eastern nations appeared to have a...
Parallels between Turkish soccer and general elections could prove uncanny
With electoral upsets having become the norm, the latest upheaval that last week swept aside the long-standing president of Fenerbahce SC, the political crown...
Saudi effort to isolate Iran internationally produces results
Saudi efforts to isolate Iran internationally are producing results in North Africa and Central Asia. Authorities and religious leaders in Tajikistan and Algeria have...
Israel scores painful own goal in run-up to the World Cup
Argentina’s cancellation of a friendly against Israel because of Israeli attempts to exploit the match politically is likely to reverberate far beyond the world...
Jordanian protests: Revisiting the Arab Spring and setting a benchmark
Protests that forced Jordan’s prime minister to resign and laid bare the country’s systemic economic and political crisis shed a new light on the...
King Abdullah of Jordan: Balancing on an ever-tighter tightrope
A look at a decade of failed social, economic and political reform in Jordan goes a far way to explain recent mass anti-government protests...