The landscape of Jerusalem is some of the most confusing and fractured in the world. Various armistice lines, illegal annexations, settlements, the 26ft Israeli wall, etc. have made it nearly impossible to make sense of the landscape in any coherent way.
Or at least, who cares enough to try to start thinking anew? The region is burning. Apart from the parties to the conflicts who want to win, nobody seems to have any idea of what to do.
The roots of the most recent crisis in Iraq can be traced to the US-led invasion of 2003 and western meddling in Syria. At stake, is the neoliberal blueprint of post-invasion Iraq, now defended in an effort coordinated between the Baghdad government and its western backers.
Israel hopes that any Islamist extremists planning to infiltrate its borders will come up against a brick wall.
Western states' involvement with Israel has resulted in outcomes which go against the principles for which they supposedly stand, and against the wishes of voters. Israel's perpetual instability means this is unlikely to change any time soon.
It is essential not only to expose the ideological weaknesses of the current order, but to link the current political order with international neo-colonial ideology, replacing it with one based on the welfare of the average Arab citizen.
Cautious conciliatory overtures between Riyadh and Tehran indicate that the realities of the regional power balance might outweigh long-standing hostilities.
The economy is the bedrock that any future Syria will be built on. This excerpt from the concluding sections of ECFR's policy brief explores what is left of that bedrock, how it has been transformed, and what European states can do in the light of the current state of Syria's economy.
Citizens of the State of Israel celebrated their anniversary of independence on 6 May 2014. After the celebrations, the author responds to three articles recently published on openDemocracy, explaining why any proposal to close down the Palestinian Authority must sound totally illogical to Israeli
In the short term the Ukraine/Crimea crisis adds momentum to Russia’s drive to reassert its superpower presence and influence in the Middle East, and reinforces the regional perception, whether justified or not, of US withdrawal and hesitation.
The Gulf countries and Iran need to address their mutually contentious foreign policy issues, such as Syria, Iran's nuclear programme, and their relationships with the US.
An important yet neglected dimension of the Egyptian revolution is Egypt's position as a peripheral country, the connection between its elites and the heart of capitalism. Egypt’s geo-strategic position makes it important.
