News related to
James M Dorsey

By James M Dorsey A Gulf investor with an analytical and artistic bent, Ali al-Salim pinpointed the long-term challenges Saudi Arabia faces as it re-establishes relations with Iran. While most analysts focused on the immediate reduction of regional tensions and the possible opening for an end to the eight-year-long Saudi military intervention in Yemen as […]

The post Unleashing Of An Iranian Tiger: Politics Over Tourist Attractions first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey A push by Arab allies of the United States to bring Syria in from the cold highlights the limits of a Chinese-mediated rapprochement between the Middle East’s archrivals, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The effort spearheaded by the United Arab Emirates, and supported by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, demonstrates that the […]

The post Arab Plan For Syria Puts Europe And America In A Bind first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Chinese mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran potentially signals paradigm shifts in Middle Eastern diplomacy and alliances. The mediation suggests a more productive approach than that of the United States by seeking to manage rather than resolve conflicts based on principles enunciated by China in 2021. The successful mediation between the […]

The post Saudi, Iran Détente Sparks Potential Paradigm Shifts In Middle East Politics first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey In a surprise development, Saudi Arabia and Iran, together with China, announced that the two Middle Eastern nations were re-establishing diplomatic relations. The agreement was reached in a meeting in China of the two countries’ national security advisors. The agreement was a rare example of successful Chinese mediation in Middle Eastern […]

The post Saudis Walk US, Israeli, Iran Tightrope On Resumption Of Diplomatic Ties first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey This could be India’s decade if it plays its cards right. The sub-continental state is poised to be the next China, even if its path will likely be less straightforward than that of China and more of a Leninist two steps forward, one step backwards. Leaving aside the multiple domestic issues […]

The post India Could Be This Decade’s China If New Delhi Plays Its Cards Well first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey A recent survey of Iranian public opinion suggests that the lack of confidence in a Middle Eastern regime is starkest in Iran, although crisis-wracked Lebanon, Egypt, or Syria may compete. Surveyed in late December by the Netherlands-based Gamaan Institute, an overwhelming majority of the 158,000 respondents in Iran and 42,000 Diaspora […]

The post Survey Finds Iran To Be Ripest Country In Middle East For A Revolution first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has put Israel’s closest allies and some of his key partners on the spot. So has a generation of Palestinian youth that has nothing to lose and no longer sees fruitless engagement with and acquiescence of the Jewish state as a means of realizing their national and […]

The post Israelis And Palestinians Do What They Do Best, But For Wrong Reasons first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Moderate Muslims and militant Hindu nationalists are strange bedfellows at the best of times, particularly when they come together to reshape Hindu-Muslim relations in troubled India. Yet, that is what Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama and India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) seek to achieve. Nahdlatul Ulama, arguably the world’s most moderate Muslim civil […]

The post Moderate Muslims Take To A Risky Strategy To Engage With Militant RSS first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey An official visit to Xinjiang to assess the fate of Turkic Muslims in the troubled north-western Chinese Province is a risky proposition by any definition. Even so, it would be worth the risk if China and Turkey could agree on the terms of a visit. The problem is that the terms […]

The post Turkey Walks A Fine Line To Challenge China On Uighur Repression first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Pomp and circumstance are important. So are multiple agreements to be signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia this week, his first venture beyond East and Central Asia in three years. No doubt, Xi’s reception will be on par with the welcoming of Donald J. Trump when he […]

The post Xi’s Visit To Saudi Arabia Amounts To More Than Pomp And Ceremonies first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Hungary didn’t qualify for the Qatar World Cup, but that hasn’t stopped Prime Minister Victor Orban from exploiting the world’s current focus on soccer to signal his Putinesque definition of central European borders as defined by civilization and ethnicity rather than internationally recognized frontiers. Orban drew the ire of Ukraine and […]

The post Hungary Exit At Doha No Deterrent For PM To Promote Civilizationalist Agenda first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Protest on the soccer pitch has proven to be a mixed blessing for World Cup host Qatar, exposing double standards in the Gulf state’s position as well as that of its critics. Qatar embraced protest when it supported Qatari policies, such as the Gulf state’s increasingly assertive denunciation of double standards […]

The post Protests Emerge As Mixed Blessing For World Cup Host Qatar first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Barely out of the starting blocks, the Qatar World Cup has already produced a fair share of upsets as well as politically and personally sensitive situations and incidents. Qatar’s 2:0 loss to Ecuador in the tournament’s opening match will have reinforced critics’ conviction that the Gulf state should never have been […]

The post Qatar World Cup Produces Soccer Upsets, Politics And Sensitive Situations first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Recent Saudi efforts to appease the Biden administration in the wake of the kingdom’s backing of last month’s OPEC+ oil production cut take on added significance in the wake of this week’s US midterm elections that have strengthened Joe Biden and weakened former President Donald J. Trump. Saudi insistence on a […]

The post Regional Tensions Spill Into Qatar World Cup As Event Gets Underway first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hit all the right cords when he spoke virtually with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, at a meeting of the China-Saudi Arabia High-Level Joint Committee last month. Wang told Bin Farhan: “China attaches great importance to the development of China-Saudi Arabia relations and puts […]

The post Xi Toying With A Saudi Visit: Manoeuvring Dangerous Middle East Minefields first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey The threats to Israel’s existence as a democratic Jewish state have multiplied and could weaken or undermine a pillar of Israeli national security: unquestioned US support. Rising anti-Semitism among Christian nationalists, together with Evangelicals, the mainstay of US grassroots support for Israel, threatens to drive a wedge between the community and […]

The post Christian Nationalism A New Threat To Israel’s National Security first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey The final run-up to the 2022 World Cup and the tournament’s management is make-it-or-break-it time for Qatar. Both will determine Qatar’s ultimate soft power benefit from the World Cup. How Qatar manages the tournament, and potential flare and hick-ups will shape how the 2022 World Cup is perceived and remembered. The […]

The post 2022 World Cup: Qatar’s Make Or Break Moment first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Nahdlatul Ulama, arguably the world’s only Muslim mass movement propagating a genuinely moderate and pluralistic form of Islam, has forged an unlikely, albeit temporary, alliance with the Saudi-controlled Muslim World League. The League is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s chief propagator of a socially less restrictive but autocratic interpretation of […]

The post Indonesian Muslims Gamble On Problematic Ties With Saudi Order first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has blown new life into Turkey’s vision of a Turkic world that stretches from Anatolia to Xinjiang in north-western China. “Central Asia now resembles the 1990s when there was a huge competition between global and regional powers for influence over the resource-rich region. The shadow of Russia […]

The post Geopolitical Minefields Of President Erdogan’s Ambitious Turkic World first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Proponents of a moderate Islam that embraces tolerance, diversity, and pluralism may be betting on the wrong horse by supporting Muslim scholars on autocrats’ payroll. Polling in the Middle East seems to confirm that state-sponsored clerics lack credibility. Recent research suggesting that non-violent protest has increasingly become less effective magnifies problems […]

The post Betting On The Wrong Horse: Battle To Define Moderate Islam first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey In a mirror image of recent polling in the Middle East, a just-published survey of Muslims in Southeast Asia suggests Islam’s central role in people’s daily lives and choices. The survey was published days after former Indonesian minister of social affairs Habib Salim Segaf Al-Jufri was named secretary general of the […]

The post Southeast Asia Mirrors Middle East’s Increasing Religious Fundamentalism first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey The Biden administration is mulling whether to grant Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sovereign immunity in a case related to the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi. The journalist’s fiancé and a non-profit organization he helped found filed the lawsuit in a Washington district court. The court has extended its original […]

The post Biden Seen Likely To Grant Immunity To Saudi Crown Prince first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Indonesia’s geopolitical plate is piling up as the archipelago state prepares to host the Group of 20 (G20) summit and associated gatherings in November, including the Religion 20 (R20), a high-level meeting of religious leaders, the first under the G20’s auspices. The challenges and opportunities for Indonesia are multiple and often […]

The post Indonesia As G-20 Chairman Requires A Tightrope Walk first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey With the fate hanging in the balance of the 2015 international agreement that curbed Iran’s nuclear program, prospects for greater security and stability in the Middle East are meagre with or without a deal. Undoubtedly, the region will be better off with a revival of the accord from which the United […]

The post Gulf Security In Peril, With Or Without Nuclear Deal With Iran first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Qatar’s 2022 World Cup promises to benefit not only itself but also to provide an unintended economic, political, and religious soft power boon for its foremost rival in the region, the United Arab Emirates. The UAE, alongside Saudi Arabia, leads a pack of Gulf states eager to capitalize on the expectation […]

The post Qatar World Cup Opens A New World For Gulf Arab Neighbours first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey A potential revival of the Iran nuclear accord is likely to test the sustainability of Middle Eastern efforts to dial down tensions and manage differences by improving diplomatic relations and fostering economic cooperation. In the latest fence mending, two Gulf states, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates announced their ambassadors’ return […]

The post Revival Of Iran Nuclear Deal To Test Middle East Détente first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey   When Russia invaded Ukraine, it took itself off the map of Eurasian transport corridors linking China and Europe. At the same time, it breathed new life into moribund routes that would allow goods to travel across the Eurasian landmass without traversing Russia. It also opened the door to greater Russian […]

The post Heyday For Geopolitics Of Eurasian Transport first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey   When Prime Minister Victor Orban recently spelled out his vision of Hungary’s frontiers, he joined a club of expansionist leaders such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, and members of the Indian power elite who define their countries’ borders in civilisational rather than national terms.   Speaking on Romanian […]

The post Echoes Of Demand For Civilisational Rather Than National Boundaries first appeared on IPA Newspack.

  By James M Dorsey   When US intelligence asserted that Iran was selling hundreds of combat drones to Russia, it was signalling more than Iranian support for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.   Suggesting that Russia was not capable of serial producing its own drones, the intelligence served to question further Russian military capabilities, […]

The post Drones And Transport Capable Of Reshaping Eurasian Geopolitics first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey President Joe Biden was not wrong when he declared that “justice has been served” with the killing of Al Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri in a US drone strike. The problem is that’s only half of the truth; the other half is that Zawahiri was more a has-been than a power to […]

The post Al Qaeda Chief Zawahiri’s Killing By U.S. Is A Symbolic Act first appeared on IPA Newspack.