World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Sectarianism has a profound role in shaping the consciousness of wide segments of the Middle East’s population. It increases their propensity for violent behavior, both verbal and physical, and can lead to sectarian discrimination. Sectarianism is not born of a single factor. Rather, a set of…

In a bold step, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani called Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to congratulate him on the formation of the new Syrian government. Sudani has taken the initiative, and this gesture will contribute to rebuilding trust between the two governments after decades of…

After a 3-year break, a serial that started almost 50 years ago is expected to return to world screens with a new season: Uncle Sam wooing the Mullahs of Tehran. The new season started with a letter sent by US President Donald J Trump to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei three weeks ago reportedly…

Some Lebanese take pleasure in concocting a narrative that presents the pursuit of disarmament that establishes a state monopoly on arms and the fight against corruption in public life as contradictory objectives. Mind you, there is plenty of glaring evidence that impunity for one sustains the…

The Saudi-US relationship is a complex subject. In-depth discussions of their strategic vision for the global economy and Middle Eastern security necessarily branch out in multiple directions. Several books have been written about this strategic alliance that has ebbed and flowed over its eighty…

Last Tuesday, my colleague Nadim Koteich wrote a piece about the Middle East policy of the US under President Donald Trump on these pages, building on an interview that Trump’s envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, had conducted with journalist Tucker Carlson. Koteich did not endorse a position and…

Iran is a major and prestigious country that the region has an interest in seeing become stable and prosperous, away from the rhetoric of threats to shut the Hormuz Strait and support Houthi rockets attacks in the Red Sea. The Khomeini revolution was not just a major coup in Iran, but its…

I’m far from a Luddite. It is precisely because I use new technology that I know mid when I see it. Academics are rarely good stand-ins for typical workers. But the mid technology revolution is an exception. It has come for us first. Some of it has even come from us, genuinely exciting academic…

Yesterday, in Jeddah, Syrian and Lebanese defense ministers Murhaf Abu Qusra and Michel Menassa signed a promising agreement to end lingering border issues between Lebanon and Syria. In truth, neither the new Syrian government nor the current Lebanese authorities contributed to these issues, which…

A Turkish lady recently reproached her “Syrian friends,” in a Facebook post, because she had not received “a single message of solidarity” amid the turbulence in Türkiye. She concluded her post by saying that “expressing solidarity is not shameful” but rather “an ethical and political choice.” …

This headline alludes to works of literature to illustrate political realities, beginning with Ernest Hemingway's “A Farewell to Arms” and up to the Kurdish author Ronak Murad's famous novel about the history of the Kurdish struggle “The Granddaughter of Ishtar.” The two novels' plots tie the…

“Why is Donald Trump doing what he is doing?” This is the question raised by European intelligentsia these days as they try to recover from the shock of the American presidential election which they all believed would be won by the Democrat champion Kamala Harris. France’s currently fashionable TV…