World News Insights: Opinion Articles

There were big demonstrations last Friday in parts of Syria rejecting a rapprochement between Bashar al-Assad’s government and Türkiye. Maybe I am too cynical, and I must acknowledge my many mistakes when I worked on the Syria file ten years ago but my opinion in short is: this is a political game…

Just two months after New York voters delivered New York Democrats a drubbing at the polls, it’s not clear if the message is penetrating the party’s thicket of dysfunction and hubris. The hubris made an appearance over the holiday, when the governor approved a 29 percent pay raise that the State…

Back when Martyr’s Square was the commercial hub of Beirut, a group of Moroccan immigrants scattered across its outskirts constituted one of its hallmarks. Each of them carried long beads with which he would foretell the future of passers-by and tell them of the fortunes about to fall into their…

Sometimes the decision-maker rejects golden advice that could have saved peoples and maps and prevented the waste of a sea of blood and waves of refugees. The danger increases when it comes to the head of a superpower that relies on a mighty arsenal. The problem with rational voices is that they…

The seventies saw the emergence of a militant Arabic militant song with these lyrics: “I am steadfast, I am steadfast/ On the land of my country I am steadfast/ Even if they steal my property, I am steadfast/ Even if they kill my children, I am steadfast/ Even if they destroy my home, in the…

In the realm of folklore and ancient traditions, myths are tales forever retold for their wisdom and underlying truths. Their impossibility is part of their appeal; few would pause to debunk the physics of Icarus’s wings before warning against flying too close to the sun. In the worlds of…

A former senior official at an international organization reminded me, when we met recently, of an article I wrote in 2000, entitled 'EU Follows UN in Wasting Development Aid.' This official, who retired years ago after decades of international development work, said: "When it was first…

Four months after the eruption of the protests in Iran over the death of a young woman held in police custody for allegedly improperly wearing the hijab and after all the oppression against the Iranians, supreme leader Ali Khamenei declared that he rejects accusing Iranian women wearing loose…

When the Chinese government abruptly eased its draconian Covid-19 policies in December, I felt an uncanny combination of abject horror and relief. After three years of endless PCR tests and lockdowns — “zero Covid,” which has gripped China like a vise, was finally brought to a close. Overseas…

The centennial anniversary of the birth of former United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was last December. This provides an occasion to reflect not only on the career of a public figure with a unique experience at the national, regional, and international levels but also on the…

At first, Donald Trump’s strategy for dealing with the US media was intelligent. He considered it part of the coalition of corrupt elites that he promised to get rid of. Seeking to undermine the media and its credibility, called it fake news and said that journalists are corrupt, giving them a long…

For the first time in nearly a century, we have witnessed the stunning spectacle of a Republican Party so fractured, it has struggled in multiple rounds of balloting to choose a speaker of the House. This Washington drama reflects larger structural forces that are changing American democracy. …