(This article was first published by the European Council on Foreign Relations on its website) One of the most intriguing turns of the post-uprising scene in Egypt has been the emergence of the Salafi movement – as a political force, as a rival to […]
(This article was written for the European Council on Foreign Relations and appeared on its website) Egypt’s government is ratcheting up pressure to the maximum to persuade Egyptians to take part in the referendum on the post-coup constitution and to vote yes. […]
A recent conference on “Israel and the changing Middle East”, organised by the Anglo-Israel Association (with a few other sponsors) offered a fascinating insight into the concerns of Zionist Israelis and their views of the historical conflict with Arab Palestinians at this point – […]
Hany Abu Assad’s new film Omar won the best film award at the Dubai International Film Festival last week, cementing his reputation as one of the foremost Arab directors of the moment. His Paradise Now (2006) won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign […]
Egyptian documentary film-maker Mohamed Elkaliouby has delved into one of the most controversial yet illuminating incidents of modern Egyptian history – the workers strikes of Kafr al-Dewar in August 1952. The mobilization for better wages and conditions led to a clashes with police and an […]
(This was written for the European Council on Foreign Relations, appearing on its website) Almost everyone is happy about the deal reached between United States and Iran. Turkey, which has been drawing close to Tehran of late, is sending its foreign minister there on Monday; Oman […]
(First published on ECFR website) Qatar is facing a barrage of criticism now over its treatment of Asian workers hired to build infrastructure for its staging of World Cup 2002. The Guardian revealed in September that dozens of Nepalis had died in recent […]
The Arabic text of Hamad bin Khalifa’s speech from 25 June on standing down as emir of Qatar and the speech of his successor Tamim, delivered the next day – a useful reference tool perhaps. Tweet
(Part of a European Council on Foreign Relations report, ‘The Gulf and Sectarianism’, published November 2013) Sectarianism has long underpinned Saudi Arabia’s domestic and foreign policy, and it has proved to be a particularly effective tool in the government’s management of the Arab […]
Hazem Kandil, a political sociologist at the University of Cambridge, outlined in a lecture in Oxford last week his view of the movement as a politically naïve cult acting on an innovative understanding (discordant within the Islamic tradition) of religious determinism – the idea that God […]