Oil Uncertainty Threatens Iraq’s Ability to Rebuild
by Derek Davison The global oil market is undeniably in flux. Crude oil prices, after dropping at the start of this year to levels not seen in more than a decade, have climbed nearly $20 per barrel,...
View ArticleAzerbaijan: Choosing Between Repressing Dissent and Western Loans
by Joshua Kucera Azerbaijan must make legislative changes within four months that expand rights for local civil society organizations, or risk losing billions of dollars in loans it needs to build a...
View ArticleReport: Trump Administration Should Build on the JCPOA, Not Tear It Down
by Derek Davison In a new report signed by 76 scholars and national security experts, including former officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations, the National Iranian-American...
View ArticleHow Donald Trump Changed Everything (2016-2020)
by John Feffer I didn’t vote in the pivotal American election of 2016. Thirty-five years ago, in that unseasonably warm month of November, I was in Antarctica’s Allan Hills taking ice core samples with...
View ArticleEntropy in Geopolitics
by Chas W. Freeman, Jr. A hundred and fifty years ago, a German physicist derived the concept of “entropy” from the second law of thermodynamics. Since then, entropy has stood for the idea that...
View ArticleQatar-Gulf Crisis: Geoeconomic Implications
by Jim Lobe In light of the fast-moving events in the Gulf over the past couple of days, LobeLog interviewed Sara Vakhshouri, a Gulf expert who specializes in the region’s energy markets. A long-time...
View ArticleQatar Crisis Could Lead to War: Veteran US Diplomat
by Jim Lobe Given the fast-moving events in the Persian Gulf region over the past two weeks, LobeLog decided to consult Chas W. Freeman, Jr., whose occasional lectures on key foreign policy issues have...
View ArticleHow the GCC Blockade Reignited Qatar’s Nationalism
by Nicolai Due-Gundersen On July 21, 2017, Qatar’s emir gave his first address since the start of a two-month blockade launched by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt. “The time...
View ArticleTweeting While the Planet Burns
by Tom Engelhardt It’s January 2025, and within days of entering the Oval Office, a new president already faces his first full-scale crisis abroad. Twenty-four years after it began, the war on terror,...
View ArticleReexamining US Mideast Policy after the Jerusalem Proclamation
by Robert E. Hunter President Donald Trump’s official proclamation that the US accepts Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, along with preparations to move the American embassy there from Tel Aviv, has...
View ArticleIran’s Vulnerable Energy Supply and the Protests
by Sara Vakhshouri Unlike early 2017, when Iran’s energy industry started a year full of hope and prospects of potential growth, 2018 has started with different potential risks targeting its energy...
View ArticleMilitarizing America’s Energy Policy
by Michael Klare The new U.S. energy policy of the Trump era is, in some ways, the oldest energy policy on Earth. Every great power has sought to mobilize the energy resources at its command, whether...
View ArticleTrump’s Sanctions Will Hurt Iran, But How Much?
by Derek Davison Even after Donald Trump decided to violate the Iran nuclear deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA) by reimposing U.S. sanctions against Iran, he had a range of options. He...
View ArticleA Meaningful Plan for North Korea’s Development
by Emanuel Pastreich We must feel sympathy for the North Korean government officials suddenly faced with slick corporate operators from Koch Industries, or elsewhere, who come in to overwhelm them...
View ArticleIraq Elections: A Step Toward Rebuilding Popular Power
by David Bacon The U.S. media quickly dismissed the results of Iraq’s national elections on May 12. Journalists were puzzled by what the followers of Muqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP)...
View ArticleRussia and the UAE Are Now Strategic Partners: What’s Next?
by Li-Chen Sim During a working visit to Russia last week, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, concluded a Declaration of Strategic Partnership with his host, Russian...
View ArticleIraq’s Oil Union Defends Protesters
by David Bacon As uncertainty continues over the results of Iraq’s May 12 election, the deterioration in social services that brought about the victory of the Sairoon coalition has impelled thousands...
View ArticleOman’s Port Strategy
by Giorgio Cafiero and Victoria Shakespeare At the incipience of plans to finalize ports in Duqm and Salalah, Oman could potentially succeed in establishing two commercial hubs that become highly...
View ArticleWho Will Benefit from Yemeni Oil Exports?
by Rauf Mammadov and Theodore Karasik Yemen is fracturing into microstates. Localism is driving politics in the country more than ever before. Unanswered questions about who in Yemen will benefit from...
View ArticleIran’s Regional Electricity Hub Plan
by Omid Shokri Kalehsar Despite its huge oil and gas reserves, Iran has been unable to play an important role in regional and international energy market. The limitations placed on its industry, the...
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