Galip Dalay | 17 February 2016
The main motivation behind the Geneva III talks was to get a deal irrespective of whether this deal was fair and sustainable.
Basheer Nafi | 17 February 2016
In Syria, as well as over other issues in MENA, the Obama administration no longer has the appetite to support the Arab revolution
Carole Nakhle | 15 February 2016
The lifting of economic and trade sanctions in relation to Iran’s nuclear programme means that the Islamic Republic should be able to export its oil freely to a wide range of customers, just as it did before the imposition of sanctions. Since Iran was not a negligible producer, other producers fear that the timing of its comeback to the market is bad news, as it may lead to lower oil prices for longer, especially if OPEC sticks to its existing strategy. The key questions that the international community is subsequently debating are: will Iran flood the oil market and, more importantly, is it able to do so? As this article argues, the sanctions were only partially responsible for Iran’s energy problems, and their removal will not solve the country’s long standing impediments to production, which, in the absence of sound and robust reforms, will prohibit a rapid expansion in Iranian capacity, as they have done for decades now.
Galip Dalay | 15 February 2016
The Kurdish question dominates Turkey’s political agenda again, this time through low-intensity urban warfare. Just a year ago, a peace deal between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Turkey seemed attainable, but the situation has deteriorated since the summer of 2015. The government has not sufficiently appreciated how the Kurds’ gains in Syria and Iraq have become the reference points of the Kurdish movement in Turkey. Recent fighting has resulted in the further consolidation of the Kurdish movement around the PKK, which bodes ill for the future of Turkey and the Kurdish movement in general. This vicious cycle can only be broken by the mutual accommodation of Turkey and the PKK on Syria and Turkey’s Kurdish regions. Turkey will need to cease to question the Syrian Kurdish gains and look for some kind of modus vivendi with this entity; the PKK must reciprocate by terminating its urban-warfare strategy in Turkey
Mahjoob Zweiri | 15 February 2016
The nuclear deal and its ramifications have added new elements of tensions between the Islamic Republic and the Gulf States. The lifting of the sanctions will be a significant addition to Iran’s financial capacity, which is likely to further Iran’s Involvement in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. With King Salman’s new foreign policy approach to the Middle East, more Iranian involvement in the region with the removal of the sanctions is probably going to complicate regional politics between the Iran and the Gulf States and will exasperate the competition for regional and international influence.
Mohamad Elmasry | 26 January 2016
The re-solidification of an authoritarian order and the impending uprising in Egypt.
Basheer Nafi | 21 January 2016
Identity wars are contributing to the enfeeblement and decline of states,
Al Sharq Strategic Research | 26 December 2015
The Al Sharq Forum has inaugurated the first stage of the "Jewar" initiative by training 23 activists from 15 different countries in the Al Sharq region on "Social Peace and Reconciliation"
Galip Dalay | 26 December 2015
Turkey needs to strike a fine balance between establishing public order in PKK-occupied places and avoiding military overreaction.
Basheer Nafi | 25 December 2015
The British review on the Muslim Brotherhood is another stratum in a long history of misunderstanding of the movement
