Playing both sides against the middle: Saudi Arabia engages with Iraqi Shiites
James M. Dorsey | Saudi Arabia, with the Islamic State on the ropes in Iraq, is forging ties to Iraqi Shiite leaders and offering to...
The Twists And Turns Of Indian-Iranian Military Aid To Iraq
Andrew Korybko | Both Great Powers are intensifying their military relations with the war-torn state in the wake of Daesh’s decisive defeat in Mosul, with news...
Saudi Silliness: Fracas with Qatar and Sectarian Injunction
Adnan Qaiser | In my paper in spring 2017: ‘Radical Islamism: Understanding Extremist Narrative and Mindset,’ I had postulated that all Middle East’s ills lie...
It is check and mate for Israel in Golan Heights
M K Bhadrakumar | Israel has suffered a big setback in the Syrian conflict with the deployment of Russian military police in the safe zone...
Plot thickens in great game over post-ISIS Iraq and Syria
M K Bhadrakumar | The post-ISIS future of Iraq and Syria has been a topic of animated discussion among American think tankers, the assumption being...
The Gulf crisis: Small states battle it out (SSRN Working Paper Part 1)
James M. Dorsey | Abstract Buried in the Gulf crisis is a major development likely to reshape international relations as well as power dynamics in the...
US moves against Iran raise spectre of wider regional conflict
James M. Dorsey | US President Donald J. Trump. in a step that could embolden Saudi Arabia to move ahead with plans to destabilize Iran,...
China takes a leap of faith in the Middle East
M K Bhadrakumar | Like a deer caught in the headlight on the median of the highway at night, South Block stands paralyzed as the...
Deconstructing Trump: Iran sanctions
M K Bhadrakumar | There is an old impish yarn that Noah was stunned to see the two cats he’d put in the Ark trooping...
Of slapping sanctions and regime change; the noose tightens on Tehran.
News Analysis | A day after dishing-out the second certificate of Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal, the Trump administration announced new sanctions on individuals...
Trump’s Afghanistan strategy is simply old wine in a new bottle
Michael Kugelman | Afghanistan has suffered through a harrowing summer, even by the nightmarish standards of a country convulsed by conflict for decades. A cycle of...
Trump shows realism toward Iran
M. K. Bhadrakumar | The United States’ regional strategies in the Middle East face multiple challenges and it needs strong nerves and robust realism not...