On the campaign trail, Donald Trump suggested steps that could plunge the Middle East further into chaos. Once President, will he change tack? A staff member removes the Iranian flag after a meeting of foreign ministers and representatives of the U.S., Iran, China,...
By Nelson Graves Let’s take time out from digesting Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election to look at a critical issue that is helping to shape politics in that country and around the world: terrorism. Terrorism sends shock waves around...
Five and a half years after its civil war erupted, Syria descends into the abyss as the world watches. What lessons can we draw from this tragedy? A Syrian man holding a girl surrounded by the rubble of houses destroyed by air strikes in Aleppo, Syria, 21 April 2014...
Yemen’s civil war has accelerated the collapse of a fragmented Arab state, but don’t hold your breath for international action to mitigate war horrors. A Yemeni woman strokes the arm of her malnourished infant, Sanaa, Yemen, 27 November 2014. (EPA/Yahya...
By Nelson Graves The Islamic State movement will probably be destroyed militarily in the next year, but the roots of the radical group will survive unless Arab regimes promote social justice and economic growth. That was one of the key messages that Rami Khouri, an...
By Alistair Lyon When Turkish tanks swept into Syria last month, their first objective was to drive Islamic State fighters from Jarablus, a border town whose strategic location has long attracted covetous eyes and the murky maneuvers of spies and statesmen. For...
Turkey’s first ground intervention in Syria’s war aims to prevent an independent state for Kurds and changes the dynamics in the five-year-old conflict. A child waves toward Turkish troops heading to the Syrian border, Karkamis, Turkey, 26 August 2016. (AP...
By Ruben Tjon-A-Meeuw It was hardly a coincidence. Mere hours before U.S. Vice President Joe Biden landed in Ankara to stress the significance of Turkish-American friendship, Turkish tanks rolled into northern Syria in an effort to drive Islamic State forces out of...
What are we to make of France and the burkini? Should we be outraged that towns have banned the swimsuit? Or glad as it is a symbol of oppression? A woman wearing a burkini at a protest in London, 25 August 2016. (EPA/Hannah McKay) By Nelson Graves What are we to make...
Nearly seven decades after it won independence, India is riddled with corruption and ruled by thugs. It’s time to grant independence to India’s 29 states. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) greets school children after he addressed the nation from New...