Dr. Abdel Monem Said

Elections are one of the modern mechanisms by which nations determine the course of various affairs, resolving difficult questions by making the attainment of a “majority” a means of preventing conflict and violence. Our region is now approaching three elections that could have a significant impact…

It is time to look at what is happening in the world and the Middle East through a certain logic, one familiar from grand stage productions, exceptional films that run for hours, and even classical operas with their intricate music and plots. There is no shortage of riveting side scenes that…

There are periods in the history of nations and peoples, and indeed of individuals and the world as a whole, that are marked by a profound sense of uncertainty about the great objectives tied to destiny, survival, and the conduct of life. In such times, calculations become extraordinarily…

The Iranian war continues along its various fronts. In reality, it is called an Iranian war because Iran was its source when Hamas launched its attack on October 7, 2023; when it mobilized its other proxies in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen to provide support; and when it responded to the anticipated…

For nearly three years now, precisely since October 7, 2023, earthquakes and hurricanes have been battering the world, and what matters most to us is what is happening in the Middle East. It is no longer the site of confounding wars alone, but of "confounders" no one expected to carry such weight,…

I hope no one has tired of the well-worn saying that if a person does not choose his parents, states do not choose their neighbors. To which one might add the region as well, since a region is made up of adjoining neighbors that have lived a shared history in which each country’s interests took…

Thirty-six years have passed since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the formation of the Arab and international coalition that liberated it, in what came to be called the Second Gulf War - preceded by the first, when Iran and Iraq fought for eight years (1980-1988). The Third Gulf War came with the…

The events sweeping the Middle East these past days have run along two paths: a return to war, or a turn to negotiation - an effort, within the terms of a violated truce, to find a way out of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz that Iran has chosen to seize. Iran's claim runs not only along the…

In searching for the roots of the tragedies Arabs are now enduring amid the region's overlapping wars, attention turns again and again to the militias ravaging the area. Their leaders share distinctive traits that betray considerable brutality, cloaked in conduct whose religious basis is…

I ask the kind reader's indulgence to reuse the exact title I previously employed in this space on December 23, 2009. At that time, speaking of the "perplexity" of a superpower like the United States was considered a form of intellectual recklessness, especially given the well-known wealth of…