World News Insights: Opinion Articles

The fleets have approached closer, and the generals have pored over maps. The scent of war is in the air. The region holds its breath. Coexisting with Iran’s approach is less costly than enduring the collapse of the Iranian regime. Mediation has been set in motion. The region seems locked into a…

As MP Hussein al-Hajj Hassan declared that “we have nothing to offer or to discuss north of the Litani River,” thereby reiterating Hezbollah’s insistence on its arms and “resistance,” in open defiance of the government’s decision to limit weapons throughout Lebanon to state forces, the Israeli…

Saudi Vision 2030 is not an executive program that can be reduced to particular projects or deadlines, nor achievements assessed through the logic inaugurations, closures, and delays. Profoundly, this Vision is an intellectual–cultural project that has rearranged the relationship of Saudi…

Almost every day, journalists and governments await the outbreak of an American war against Iran. Many have forgotten what the US demands from Tehran actually are — demands whose failure to be met is said to justify war. For years, the focus was on Iran’s nuclear program, until the joint twelve-day…

National sovereignty is a phrase that before President Donald Trump brought it into question with headline-grabbing shenanigans on Venezuela, Iran and Greenland among other places was seldom heard outside political science classrooms. Now, however, it is at the center of debates about…

Traditionally, the strongest response to those who argue that resistance represents a bulwark against “Israel’s ambitions” was that diplomacy and friendships would protect Lebanon from such “ambitions” and also from similar challenges. During the brief civil war of 1958, for example, arms that the …

The day the war ends will be one of jubilation for Sudan and its people. Every Sudanese awaits this day; no doubt about it. There is disagreement, however, about how to end the war: under what conditions and for what. There are many visions for how to end the war and conditions required to…

Our region is strewn with long-buried landmines, any one of which could spark unintended consequences. This is not meant to refer to the Saudi-Emirati dispute in southern Yemen, despite it being one of today’s heated issues that could still be resolved through direct talks. Beyond these landmines,…

The Americans are beating the drums of war. They want Iran this time. But who says things always happen according to the Americans’ plans?! Even if they summon the greatest forces on the planet, the fiercest naval fleets, or the largest and most dangerous maritime “armada” in history to the…

What are the elements of a failed state? We can list a hundred reasons, but one is always enough: the economy! Without a healthy economy, we cannot afford security, which is the second element. Without security, there is no education, without education, there is no progress, without progress,…

The collapse of a dilapidated building in Tripoli on the 24th of January was a deeply revealing, harrowing tragedy. It crumbled over its residents, who chose to remain in their homes because the alternative was life on the streets after those supposed to protect them neglected their most basic duty…

Because global developments are shaped there, every political writer is inevitably tempted to focus on the Davos Forum in Switzerland. Instead of the most significant global event of the year, I would like to write about a stroll along Prince Mohammed bin Salman Road in Riyadh: the road and the…