James M Dorsey

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.

By James M Dorsey I2-U2, the Indo-West Asian quad, has boasted its first success with the acquisition by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani of Haifa Port. The acquisition was announced days after an I2-U2 virtual summit during US President Joe Biden’s visit last week to the Middle East. The acquisition by a close associate of Prime […]

The post The Privatisation Of Haifa Port With Adani: India-1, China -0 first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey US and European acquiescence in Turkey’s long-standing refusal to honour Kurdish ethnic, cultural, and political rights came home to roost when Turkey initially objected to Finnish and Swedish membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Ultimately, Turkey postponed potential conflict in NATO by dropping its initial objection to Finland and […]

The post Spotlight on U.S. Double Standards In Dealing With Turkey And Middle East first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey It’s a good time, almost 12 years after the world soccer body, FIFA, awarded Qatar the 2022 World Cup hosting rights and five months before the tournament, to evaluate the campaign to reform the country’s erstwhile onerous labour system and accommodate fans whose lifestyles violate restrictive laws and/or go against deeply […]

The post World Cup Balance Sheet Presents A Mixed Bag For Qatar first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey China could be entering choppy Middle Eastern waters. Multiple crises and conflicts will likely shape its relations with the region’s major powers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey. The laundry list of pitfalls for China includes the fallout of the Ukraine war, strained US relations with Saudi Arabia and the United […]

The post China Heading To Choppy Middle Eastern Waters first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey The question for Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is not whether either country will recognise Israel but when and who will go first. For the past two years, Saudi Arabia was believed to want a Muslim state in Asia, home to the world’s three most populous Muslim majority countries, to recognise Israel […]

The post Pak Recognition Of Israel Is A Matter Of Time first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al-Baqr, a man known for his pithy retorts, pretended to quiver in his pants. Hindu nationalists had called for a boycott of the Gulf airline after Qatar took India to task for derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed and Muslim worship by two spokespeople of the country’s […]

The post India-Gulf Spat Over Prophet Remarks: Protagonists In Glass Houses first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey United States of America and European acquiescence in Turkey’s long-standing refusal to honour Kurdish ethnic, cultural, and political rights has come home to roost with Turkish opposition to Finnish and Swedish NATO membership. The opposition has sparked debates about Turkey’s controversial place in the North Atlantic defence alliance. Turkey’s detractors point […]

The post Double Standards Haunt US, Europe In NATO Dispute With Turkey first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey For now, Ukraine is the far from my bed show for most Middle Eastern nations. The question is not if but when Ukraine will arrive on their doorstep. Two centrifugal forces threaten to push Middle Eastern nations off the tightrope: an increasingly bifurcated world populated by a multitude of civilisationalist leaders […]

The post Ukraine: How Long Can Middle East Nations Do Tightrope Walk first appeared on IPA Newspack.

James M Dorsey Amid speculation about a reduced US military commitment to security in the Middle East, Turkey has spotlighted the region’s ability to act as a disruptive force if its interests are neglected. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan set off alarm bells this week, declaring that he was not “positive” about possible Finnish and […]

The post Turkey’s Erdogan Plays Games Within And With NATO first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, he laid down a marker for a critical mass of world leaders who, like him, think in civilizational rather than national terms. In the minds of these leaders, the stakes in Ukraine are about much more than the future of a former Soviet republic […]

The post Modi’s ‘Civilisationalism’ May Be Another Potential Flashpoint first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By James M Dorsey There’s a potential silver lining in Hindu nationalism’s endorsement of Indonesia’s Humanitarian Islam. That is if the approval produces a Hindu equivalent. At first glance, Hindu nationalist Ram Madhav’s call on Indian Muslims to embrace one, if not the world’s most moderate expression of Islam, seems patronising and out of step. […]

The post Can Indonesia’s Humanitarian Islam Inspire A Hindu Equivalent? first appeared on IPA Newspack.