Middle East & North Africa Archive

This week on the Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and host Peter Dörrie discuss China’s infrastructure schemes in Southeast Asia, Poland’s right-wing government and presidents-for-life in Rwanda and Burundi. In the Report, Nate Schenkkan explains the Turkish government’s long war against the media and freedom of expression. Listen: Download: MP3Subscribe: iTunes | RSS Relevant articles from WPR: China’s Grand Plans in Southeast Asia on Track With Thai Rail Deal Constitutional Crisis Veers Poland Into Uncharted Territory U.S. Offers Mild Rebuke of Kagame’s Bid to Hold Onto Power in Rwanda African Union Intervention Could Do More Harm Than Good […]

For decades, American security strategy in the Persian Gulf has been built on a partnership with Saudi Arabia. But despite this relationship’s importance, it was always peculiar and tense, pairing a democratic global power with a secular approach to foreign policy on one hand with a stridently conservative authoritarian regime on the other. Given the Saudi regime’s internal repression and international support for a brand of Islam that sometimes provides an ideological gateway to violent extremism, few Americans felt any affinity for the desert kingdom. The relationship was seen as unpleasant but necessary to stabilize global oil prices and prevent […]

From a multinational military intervention in Yemen’s civil war to ties with the United States, the countries of the Persian Gulf have adopted a more pro-active approach to regional issues in the aftermath of the Iran nuclear deal. This collection of analysis from WPR provides insight into Gulf countries’ domestic politics, the Yemen war and relations with Washington. The articles linked below are free for nonsubscribers until Jan. 21. The Domestic and Regional Policy Outlook Nimr Execution Is Latest Unforced Error for Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia’s execution of 47 people, including Shiite cleric and opposition figure Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, got […]

On Nov. 26, the editor-in-chief and the Ankara bureau chief of Cumhuriyet, Turkey’s oldest newspaper, were detained on the grounds that they had “divulged state secrets” after they published articles and videos alleging that Turkey’s intelligence agency smuggled weapons to jihadists in Syria. The editor-in-chief, Can Dundar, had been scheduled to speak at a conference on press freedom in the Middle East at Boston College. He decided at the last minute not to attend, “for fear something might happen at Cumhuriyet while he was gone,” as one of the conference organizers told me. His fears were not unfounded. Turkish Prime […]

The shocking news that Saudi Arabia executed 47 people over the weekend, including Shiite cleric and opposition figure Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, got the new year off to a tense start in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. The executions have already caused a worsening of Saudi-Iran relations and foreshadow heightened sectarian-driven tensions across the region. But there are other consequences as well. Forty-seven convicted criminals, most of them charged with terrorism by a special court created in 2008, were executed by beheading and firing squad on Jan. 2 in multiple locations in the kingdom. Most were Sunni radicals, affiliated […]

During Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Qatar in early December, Ankara and Doha signed a memorandum of understanding for the long-term trade of liquefied natural gas. While a final agreement has yet to be completed, it was still a significant step for gas-dependent Turkey, which is trying to diversify its sources of imported natural gas and reduce its reliance on Russia, which accounted for 57 percent of Turkey’s gas imports in 2013. With ties fraying between Ankara and Moscow after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet along the Turkish-Syrian border in November, raising the possibility of Russia […]

What was your favorite diplomatic breakthrough of 2015? There were quite a few to choose from. For arms control experts, there was the nuclear deal with Iran. For trade specialists, there was the Trans-Pacific Partnership. For environmentalists, there was the COP21 Paris climate change agreement. Add in a few other noteworthy bargains, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, and 2015 was a bonanza year for international cooperation, at least in terms of pumping out diplomatic verbiage. But the biggest diplomatic achievement of the past 12 months may have been the simple fact that Russia and the West avoided a return […]