World News Insights: Opinion Articles

The implosion that became known as the Asian financial crisis had several chapters. Over the better part of two years in the late 1990s, the economies of Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea crumbled, while Malaysia suffered its deepest recession and rocked the world with capital controls. To…

It seems that India’s central bank is no fan of “buy now, pay later.” But then, the regulator’s irritation with this newish fad in consumer finance is wholly understandable. “Get Credit in 90 seconds. Shop at Millions of Merchants. Pay Later,” says the website of LazyPay, which claims to have 60…

Last month, sanctions on Russia upended the oil market, the world’s biggest commodities trade. Now, Group of Seven leaders are proposing to repeat the trick with the second-biggest trade, gold. Don’t expect the same reaction. Between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen first…

Our colleague Nadim Koteich wrote about ‘two Middle Easts’ in this newspaper’s column; one of the two encompasses the countries of moderation and peace, and the second is the axis controlled by Iran. This assessment began crystalizing through meetings between the region’s heads of state and the…

The second episode of late Prime Minister Saeb Salam’s memoirs, which was published by Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday, awakened memories of the Lebanese summer of 1982, with its horrors and resounding repercussions. It was a dramatic phase, and it is not possible to understand what happened in Lebanon…

After weeks of uncertainty, US President Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle East has become clear: A visit to Israel and also a visit to Bethlehem to meet with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. But more significantly, a trip to Saudi Arabia which includes a summit with the GCC together with…

More than three years ago, the international coalition dealt ISIS’s self-proclaimed ‘state’ in Syria and Iraq its final defeat, capturing the terrorist group’s last remaining pocket of control of al-Baghouz in eastern Syria. The military achievement, secured in close coordination with our local…

A company is in distress. Its financials are in shatters. Its brand value is being questioned. The chief executive officer has a broad blueprint to revamp and he has the support of some board members. But for a complete re-branding, he needs the approval of the chairman first. This is a process…

If Joe Biden wants to run for re-election, he should say so clearly and soon — and then start acting like it. Alternatively, if the president is not sure he wants to run again, he should take that as a strong sign that he shouldn’t — and then make that announcement soon, too. The point, you may…

Whenever disputes erupt between an Arab and a Kurdish faction in Iraq, the former slanders the latter with a ready-made accusation: you are a secessionist. Masoud Barzani, and his late father, Mullah Mustafa before him, broke the world record for facing this accusation the most times. Christians…

Jordan’s King Abdullah II announced his support for the establishment of a NATO-like alliance in the Middle East. He stressed that he supports the formation of a military alliance in the Middle East, similar to NATO, comprised of “like-minded countries”. “I’d like to see more countries in…

Covid-19 made hunger a critical concern as millions of Americans lost their jobs, families were homebound and supply chains were disrupted. Now inflation and war are making it worse. Ensuring that people had enough food to feed their families wasn't a partisan issue during the pandemic, when…