World News Insights: Opinion Articles

The visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Washington defined mutual commitments and expectations of the countries’ bilateral relations, going beyond diplomatic courtesies and vague rhetoric about security agreements. While the defense treaties and arrangements regarding nuclear energy…

The advisor to the Iranian Supreme Leader, Dr. Ali Velayati, went to extreme lengths in trivializing the lives of Lebanese people. He borrowed from religious text books to narrowly tailor his conception of the situation to his ideological priorities, disregarding the lived experience of the…

“The Russians are coming!” Throughout the Cold War that phrase expressed the anxiety felt by Western democracies about the possibility of a surprise nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. Half jest the tongue-in-cheek quip evoked Russian chief Nikita Khrushchev’s notorious braggadocio in 1956…

Just days before the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, the government of Lebanon announced that it would provide official disability cards and full benefits to thousands of Hezbollah members injured in Israel’s now-famous September 2024 covert operation detonating pagers…

As 2025 draws to a close, new dimensions to the rise of Saudi Arabia are emerging. Riyadh’s approach to its relations with the great powers is now a matter of repositioning, rendering projections of full alignment behind any single actor untenable. A new mindset has crystallized since the Kingdom…

In an informal conversation on the sidelines of the Yalta Conference of February 1945 (which brought together US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who were negotiating the end of the Second World War, as well as a framework for…

One cannot fail to notice the perpetual re-emergence of a sharp contrast between two spectacles. On the one hand, we have the scenes from festivities organized by parties that are labeled ideological or secular, in commemoration of an anniversary or in honor of a founder or leader. On the other…

Excessive burdens being placed on the shoulders of Lebanon - its people, its army, and its authorities – are too great for the country withstand. It is not fair to put the region’s afflictions on a fragile entity like Lebanon, which had itself been born of historical settlements that begin with…

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Washington comes at a particularly turbulent moment for the region. The war in Gaza has reshaped the balance of power. Iran is in retreat after successive blows to its military and political power structures; Syria is entering a new phase with the…

The assumption that the Saudi Crown Prince’s visit to Washington was mainly about dealing with regional shifts is an exaggerated one. What is reasonable to say is that it was the most significant visit in decades, because it elevated the relationship between the two countries to a new level. It was…

Benjamin Netanyahu has his way in dealing with those he perceives as Israel’s enemies. He may have accepted the ceasefire, but that does not mean that he has to suspend what he believes is his right to kill his enemies. So, he violates the ceasefire, but puts the blame on his enemies. He carries…

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the United States and the meetings he held with President Donald Trump are a crucial moment for their bilateral relations. It is the first toward broader cooperation that is expected to reinforce the Kingdom’s political safety net and restore regional…