Essays

The COP27 meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh highlighted the gap between climate policy goals and climate reality. In the MENA region and globally, cities are key to advancing climate goals

Good to the Last Drop

By Thomas L. Crisman, and Zachary S. Winters

Spring 2023

Why nature-based solutions and adaptive management may hold the key to water conservation in the MENA region

Lessons from COP27: Between Progress and Challenges

By Martha Delgado

Spring 2023

While COP27 made progress in the areas of mitigation, adaptation, financing, and incorporating a gender, youth, and human rights perspective, Mexico is putting forward various initiatives to tackle remaining challenges

COP27: Kick the Climate Can Down the Road Another Year

By Peter J. Jacques

Spring 2023

With one COP after another kicking the can down the road, the prospective loss and damage fund is threatened by the same diversionary tactics. To succeed in the climate battle, we need transformative institutions and courageous leadership

Fuelling Transition or Entropy?

By Sarah El-Shaarawi

Spring 2023

Reflections on the politics of climate change, fossil fuels, the destruction of trust, and the narratives we consume

Hearing the Global South in Climate Convos

By Zeinab Shuker

Spring 2023

If progress on climate change is to be made, voices from the most vulnerable Global South and African countries must be heard and included in conversations at climate conferences

Reflections on COP27: How Egypt and India Can Work Together

By Sanjay Verma

Spring 2023

In the face of the global climate crisis, India and Egypt must continue to lead the Global South in pursuing equitable climate action and building on the outcomes of the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties in Sharm El-Sheikh

The Strategic Calculus behind the Saudi-Iranian Agreement

By Abdolrasool Divsallar and Hesham Alghannam

Reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia creates opportunities for cooperation and poses security challenges stemming from opposing objectives, and foreign and domestic spoilers.

Iran-Saudi Arabia: A Regional Transformation?

By Ana Davis and Omar Auf

The expected resumption of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran has the potential to reshape the dynamics of the Middle East by bringing an end to proxy wars and creating opportunity for regional stability.

Social Media as a Propaganda Tool in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

By Najat Al-Saied

Sixty-one percent of Arab youth use social media as a news source. But what happens when some of these platforms are used to spread misinformation and propaganda, especially in times of war?

Another Step Toward Peace: The Lebanon-Israel Maritime Agreement

By Constantinos Yiallourides

A new deal for Israel and Lebanon promotes security and prosperity and sets a precedent for diplomacy in the Eastern Mediterranean

Fear and Power: Christian Nationalism in America

By Leslie Cohen

What draws people to the movement, its threat to democracy, and what the far right gains in its association with faith.

What Losing the Iran Deal Could Mean for the Region

By Seyed Hossein Mousavian

Fall 2022/Winter 2023

If President Joe Biden is seeking to restore sustainable peace and security in the region, he has to start with reviving the JCPOA

Navigating R2P Between Norm and Practice

By Omar Auf

Fall 2022/Winter 2023

The idea that states are responsible for the protection of their own people is a powerful normative and transformative one, but is far from complete or conclusive

Democratizing International Relations

By Antonio Patriota

Fall 2022/Winter 2023

Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali deserves to be remembered for his defense of the application of democratic principles to the international order. Today, the multipolarity of the contemporary world can help further Botrous-Ghali’s vision

Strategic Survival in Syria

By Omar Abu Layla

Fall 2022/Winter 2023

How Russia and Iran maintain their grip in Syria under the shadows of the Ukraine war

Fortune and Hazard for Algeria

By Zine Labidine Ghebouli

Fall 2022/Winter 2023

War in Ukraine has brought new cash flow to Algiers, but the state must walk an ever-narrowing path to maintain its non-alignment

The West’s Stigma, and Why it Loses Global Support By its Own Actions

By Ayman Zaineldine

Fall 2022/Winter 2023

The Ukraine war has exposed, yet again, the deep skepticism of Western intentions across the Global South, undermining efforts to strengthen the rules-based liberal global order. But this is not inevitable as it is a result of policies the West has been pursuing for a long time, which it now must change if it wants to fix its credibility

OPEC+ versus the United States and World Democracies

By Giacomo Luciani

Fall 2022/Winter 2023

The OPEC+ decision to cut oil production opens the door to further politicization of the global oil industry, particularly between the United States and Saudi Arabia

Russia, Ukraine, and U.S. Policy in the Middle East

By Daniel C. Kurtzer

Fall 2022/Winter 2023

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has influenced U.S. policy in the Middle East, the future of which depends on the outcome of the war, as well as Washington’s commitment to the region