In 2025, our authors painted a picture of a world in transition. From the rubble of Gaza to the digital battlefields of AI, these essays underscored a year defined by the collapse of old orders and the tumultuous birth of new ones. Within these shifts, four broad trends were examined.

1. The War on Gaza and Crises of International Law

The most prolific theme of the year was the continued fallout from Israel’s war on Gaza. Our authors grappled with the legal, humanitarian, and geopolitical consequences of the conflict.

Journalism in Peril: The Gaza Genocide as a Global Test of Press Freedom 

(Fall 2025). Journalists and researchers Mohamed Salama, Shahira S. Fahmy, Mona Raafat Alsaba, and Saif Shahin documented the unprecedented violence facing journalists in Gaza, arguing that the targeting of the press was a deliberate tactic by Israel to control the narrative of the war.

The Double Genocide in Gaza (Fall 2025). Gregory H. Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch, authored this harrowing piece exploring how Israel’s disproportionate response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023 massacre includes genocide against Palestinians in Gaza

Beyond Its Wildest Dreams: Israel’s Campaign for Geo-Strategic Dominance in the Middle East (Fall 2025). Journalist and independent researcher Richard Silverstein argued that Israel’s military expansiveness is sowing the seeds of its own long-term insecurity rather than stability.

Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Fall 2025). Academic and researcher Raphael Cohen-Almagor explored the difficult path forward in finding a peaceful future, emphasizing that any viable future requires deep compromise and international dedication. 

What Palestinian Statehood Must Mean to Mean Anything (Fall 2025). Former Cairo Review editor Omar Auf warned that recognizing a Palestinian state without sovereignty or contiguous territory would be a performative gesture, rather than a genuine solution.

Relocating Palestinians to “Clean Out” Gaza: Trump’s Proposal Echoes Forced Population Transfer. Ola G. El-Taliawi, Tenured Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Policy Science at the University of Twente, analyzed fears of forced displacement in Gaza, drawing historical parallels to past dispossession.

Lebanon: Political Imagination, Accountability, and a New Roadmap for Regional Stability (Fall 2025). Ayman Mhanna, director of the Samir Kassir Foundation and executive committee member of the Democratic Renewal Movement, analyzed how the “Gaza contagion” has left Lebanon hovering between a potential collapse and hope for political reordering.

2. Trump 2.0: U.S. Policy in Flux

With Donald Trump back in the White House, the Cairo Review dedicated significant space to analyzing his returning administration and its erratic engagement with the Middle East.

Trump 2.0: Where Rhetoric Meets Reality (Winter 2025). Diana Bartelli Carlin, professor emerita of communication at Saint Louis University, broke down the expectations versus the execution of the new Trump administration, questioning whether his isolationist promises could hold up against global crises.

Longer Sticks and Shorter Carrots: How the U.S. is Changing its Engagement in MENA (Winter 2025). Amr Adly, associate professor in the department of political science at The American University in Cairo, argued that Washington is moving away from economic incentives (carrots) and relying more heavily on coercive military and political power (sticks) to maintain hegemony.

In Jordan, Trump is a Divisive Figure (Winter 2025). Journalist Laila Shadid provided a view of Trump from Amman, noting that while some initially viewed him as a “lesser of two evils”, his policies have quickly alienated Jordanian public opinion.

3. Artificial Intelligence: Law, Ethics, and War

Beyond geopolitics, the Cairo Review also explored the “new frontier” of AI, particularly how it intersects with human rights and armed conflict.

Governing AI Under Fire in Ukraine (Spring/Summer 2025). Legal expert and AI researcher Anna Mysyshyn used the conflict in Ukraine as a case study, examining how democracies struggle to balance military innovation with accountability in the age of autonomous weapons.

What Counts as Legal Knowledge in the Age of AI? (Spring/Summer 2025). Thomas Skouteris, jurist specialized in international law, challenged educators and jurists to adapt to a world where legal reasoning is increasingly automated.

Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property On the Global Agenda (Spring/Summer 2025). Walid Mahmoud Abdelnasser, former director of the Division for Arab Countries at the WIPO in Geneva from 2015 to 2024, shared his perspective in this Q&A on how multilateral organizations have approached AI regulation. 

Fairness and Philosophy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (Spring/Summer 2025). Aaron Wolf, senior lecturer in university studies and research affiliate in philosophy at Colgate University, discussed the moral implications of AI’s algorithmic “fairness” in this Q&A. 

A New Year Approaches

The year’s scholarship was defined by a critical examination of the failure of international norms to protect civilians, the shifting role of the United States in the MENA region, and the growing presence of AI across geopolitics. Whether the world has learned meaningful lessons from 2025 remains to be seen, but we hope the perspectives of our authors can help chart a more peaceful course for next year.