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Progress and history in zigzag down the ages
One of the key ideas promoted by the European Enlightenment or the Age of Reason of the 18th century is that of progress according to which human history develops across a curve from a low point to......
Lebanon: Is cheat-and-retreat back on the menu?The Arab League holds an emergency meeting on Lebanon. France and the United States agree to work together to contain the Lebanese Hezbollah. Russia indicates support for compromise. Iran’s......
New Saudi strategy aimed at recruiting concept of change as an allyLast week two events injected energy and excitement into what was beginning to look like an anemic end of the year in the Middle East as far as political developments are concerned. The first event......
How Iran tried to turn Arab states into fading ghostsIf history is a stage on which the fate of nations is played out, knowing when to step in and when to bow out is of crucial importance. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time and, even worse, in......
Iran and ‘the Great Satan’: A four-decades old sagaRight now, with marches and fiery speeches, the Islamic Republic in Iran is marking the 38th anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran and the holding of American diplomats as hostages......
China: Reshuffling the party cadresIt is a testimony to the peculiarities of international attention to world events that while every tweet by US President Donald Trump triggers an avalanche of reports, analyses, and outright abuse,......
Kurdish unilateral independence and a deadly impasseDespite many efforts to stop or postpone it, the Iraqi Kurdistan referendum has become a fait accompli and must be taken into account in shaping future developments, and Masoud Barzani, the man who......
Morphing the Kurdish referendum into a mistakeWhat is the first thing you should do when you have dug yourself into a hole?The obvious answer is: stop digging. This is the advice that those involved in the imbroglio over the so-called......