One famous singing icon who has a particularly strong following in Latin America and the Middle East due to her cultural connections to both regions is Shakira. Recently, a debate arose worldwide over her boyfriend, famous footballer Gerald Pique “forbidding” Shakira from doing sensual music videos with men, raising the question to whether a partner […]
February 11 marks the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, a jolting socio-political and geopolitical event that transformed the dynamics of the Middle East, energy security, and global diplomacy. Iran, at the time a key regional ally of the U.S. and the West, became a virulently anti-U.S. and anti-Western state with a state ideology […]
Kamran Bokhari is Vice President of Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs at Stratfor, a leading geopolitical and intelligence consulting firm based in Austin, Texas. Mr. Bokhari is a distinguished scholar and expert in Middle Eastern and South Asian affairs. He has given briefings to the U.S. and Canadian governments on important geopolitical issues in […]
There are many—both in the East and the West—who have been confidently betting on the overt plan to marginalize, and, in due course, eradicate the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) as a sociopolitical movement. In light of the on-going vicious Ikhwanophobia and emboldened brutality of the coup regime, it is hard to counter such contemptuous optimism. But, […]
Dr. Janice Gross Stein is the Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, where she is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science. Dr. Stein is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Order of Canada and the […]
Nobody doubts that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is an important country in the world. Various observers cite different reasons, approvingly and disapprovingly. First of all, as a major producer of oil, the Kingdom has accumulated a considerable wealth that has provided decent essential services for its citizens at home and bought loyalty throughout […]
Since the 1970s, Saudi Arabia has employed thousands of foreign workers in many of its sectors and continues to do so as long as they enter the country and obtain work legally and according to the regulations. However, over the years more and more illegal expatriates cross the borders of the Kingdom or remain in […]
Show your support on Twitter and Facebook by reposting and retweeting United for Iran’s messages on Monday, November 18th and Tuesday the 19th. Use the hashtag #IranVote. As the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee prepares to vote on the resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran on November 19, 25 […]
The Syrian conflict has presented itself as a complex situation that has resulted in countless amounts of analysis and news articles dedicated to the political and security aspects of the crisis. Although these writings are indispensable for the ability to understand what is taking place, there hasn’t been enough attention on another aspect of the […]
A new Reuters investigation details a key to Iran’s supreme leader’s power: a little-known organization created to help the poor that morphed into a business juggernaut worth tens of billions of dollars. “Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam” – Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, or Setad – has become one of the most […]
Editor’s Note: The following article was recently published in SITREP, The Journal of the Royal Canadian Military Institute. Re-Published with Permission from SITREP, Issue #6 Nov – Dec 2013 by Reza Akhlaghi Silicon Valley in the southern region of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California has been home to America’s most innovative […]
Since the first World conference on Women in 1975, the issue of women’s rights was brought to the international stage which led to the General Assembly’s adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). These events also coincided with the international feminist movement of the 1970s. In the […]
Ayham Kamel is a Senior Middle East Analyst with the geopolitical risk consulting firm Eurasia Group. Mr. Kamel’s work is focused on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the Levant region (Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon). His sectoral expertise includes the financial industry, banking, hospitality, infrastructure, and oil and gas. He is also involved in integrating […]
Now that the U.S. has been poised to strike Syria militarily, it is helpful to consider the United States’ role in the world. The premise of this documentary is intriguing: what if the United States removed all of its troops and military hardware from the dozens of bases it has all over the world? The […]
By Manuel Langendorf Does Hamas hold a unified position on the use of violence for resistance? A crucial player in the conundrum that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Hamas has always been a controversial actor. It was founded in 1987 by late Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine, as […]