World News Insights: Opinion Articles

If the two sides of a dialogue are identical or nearly identical, it becomes nothing more than a conversation in which both repeat the same things back to each other, reproducing the same narrative. The absence of any back-and-forth can be deadly for those engaging in it: it drains vitality,…

The political scene in Iraqi Kurdistan over the past two weeks can be summed up in three politically significant developments that have dealt heavy blows to the region’s already fragile democratic process. The first event was the arrest of Shaswar Abdulwahid, head of the opposition New…

As the new political season in Europe begins this autumn, a number of trends might be studied. The first trend represents a growing global disaffection with international organizations to the benefit of the traditional nation-state. Supporters of the status quo regard that trend as an upsurge…

A long road remains for any peace deal in Ukraine, despite weeks of furious diplomacy and optimistic predictions from President Trump. But in Germany, political leaders are already debating a crucial detail for any final agreement — whether the German Army will send troops to help keep the peace. …

They come and go, one after another. The empty loops drawn by their steps are the only trace they leave behind. Some two out of ten envoys have tried and failed, the Lebanese Ghassan Salameh and the American Stephanie Williams. All of them were tasked with leading the UN mission in Libya by UN…

The sudden stampede of European leaders to Washington to buttress Ukraine’s position in any future peace agreement with Russia seems to have paid off, at least in the short term, with the talks focused on security guarantees for Ukraine. President Trump’s effusive welcome in Alaska for Russia’s…

Tom Barrack’s recent statements can no longer be dismissed as casual remarks or diplomatic slips. He is the US Envoy to Syria and Lebanon, and they should not be downplayed; indeed, explaining his rhetoric as political naivete is itself naive. Barrack speaks in his capacity as the official…

Raising the Arab appetite for greater political and economic support for Lebanon is no easy task. Indeed, their list of disappointments is long: Lebanon’s chronically tenuous assertion of its sovereignty, the clientelist politics of many Lebanese elites, and its history of exploiting Arab aid to…

The US Envoy to Lebanon Ambassador Tom Barrack and his colleague, Morgan Ortagus, are expected soon in Lebanon for a visit that comes on the heels of significant developments on both the Syrian and Lebanese fronts. Their trip also comes in the wake of the United Nations’ announcement that the Gaza…

Only a few of Yasser Arafat’s ideas were sound. One example of these rare beneficial convictions is that winning over a substantial segment of the Israeli public opinion was crucial. Although the current state of affairs does not help us make it, this claim deserves to be reaffirmed once, twice,…

Restricting armament to the state constitutes the central challenge of the Arab world. It is not merely a security and political question; rather, it pertains to the very essence of modern statehood, whose defining function is the monopolization of the “legitimate use of violence” by its…

Its name is Eritrea. The grave is closer than bread. Death swifter than aid. The grave nearer than the homeland. The sky is stingy, the earth stingy. Its war is wars. Drought left rivers as corpses cracked with thirst. Trees had to die, birds had to migrate. Eritreans had to choose between dying…