Natural gas: An underrated driver of Saudi hostility towards Iran and Qatar
Debilitating hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran is about lots of things, not least who will have the upper hand in a swath of...
Make Wine Not War: Wineism’s recipe for a sustainable political future
When Miguel Torres, scion of an iconic Spanish winemaking dynasty, described the impact of the Catalan quest for independence on his more than a...
Saudi Prince Mohammed’s religious moderation unlikely to change Asian realities
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may be seeking to revert his kingdom to an unspecified form of moderate Islam but erasing the impact...
Saudi moderation: How far will Crown Prince Mohammed go?
In his effort to improve Saudi Arabia’s badly tarnished image and project the kingdom as embracing an unidentified form of moderate Islam, Saudi Crown...
Shooting an Own Goal: China’s Belt and Road funding terms spark criticism
Steep commercial terms for China’s investment in infrastructure projects across Eurasia related to its Belt and Road initiative may give it control of key...
Countering Extremism: Jihadist Ideology Reigns Supreme
The sad truth is that governments, law enforcement, security forces, intellectuals and journalists do not have an ideological response to political violence’s latest reiteration,...
Pakistan struggles to get a grip on militancy and ultra-conservatism
Seventy years after its birth, Pakistan is struggling to get a grip on Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism and its militant offshoots that were aided and...
Smoking and drinking: Churchill sets an example today’s Western leaders can learn from
To understand that Western emphasis on human rights is at best a fig leaf to do business with autocrats whose rule is based on...
International soccer bodies ignore blatant rule violations in run-up to Egyptian election
International soccer bodies, in violation of their own bylaws, have ignored the blatant mixing of sports and politics in advance of this month’s Egyptian...
Arabs leverage lucrative nuclear contracts to enhance security and keep options open
Controversy in South Korea over a secret military clause in a nine-year old agreement to build the United Arab Emirates’ first nuclear reactor raises...