Recent discussions between Turkey and the United States indicate that the Biden administration is actively pursuing Ankara’s reinstatement in the F-35 program. It is difficult to justify why Washington would want to arm Turkey with these highly advanced fighter jets, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes fervent measures to …
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Understanding Gaza: Lessons for the “day after” and beyond
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas and other Gaza-based Palestinian armed groups launched a surprise attack on Israel’s southern border communities, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. In response, Israel retaliated by imposing a total closure of the territory and launching a massive air, sea, and land military campaign that, …
Read More »Washington must make sure this is the last war between Israel and Lebanon
The assassination of Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, marks an inflection point that will redefine the security landscape of the Middle East. His deputy, Naim Qassem, has pledged “continued resistance,” claiming Hezbollah was steadfast and will not retreat, while Israel has pressed ahead with a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. The …
Read More »The extraordinary risk of targeting regional energy assets
For nearly a year, the ongoing regional conflict, which started as a war between Israel and Hamas, seemed to contradict the old formula long thought to be one of the few certainties in global petroleum markets: that “war + Middle East = high oil prices.” While the conflict has taken …
Read More »Understanding Nasrallah’s speech: How will Hezbollah avenge Shukr?
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah spoke for the second time in seven days on August 6, commemorating one week since the assassination of the group’s military commander Fuad Shukr by Israel on July 30. Uncharacteristically calm, Nasrallah devoted much of his speech to covering the Lebanese group’s weaknesses exposed by the …
Read More »Spotlight on Iran and the Shiite Axis
On October 1, 2024, the IRGC fired about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and Hassan Nasrallah and a senior IRGC officer in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. Most of the missiles were intercepted by the Israeli Air Force and air …
Read More »BRICS Expansion, the G20, and the Future of World Order
With the addition of new members in BRICS+, the group of emerging powers will be more globally representative—but also face more internal divisions. This month, Russian President Vladimir Putin will host the first-ever summit of BRICS+ from October 22 to 24 in the Tatarstan city of Kazan. There, the founding …
Read More »Destruction of Gaza heritage sites aims to erase – and replace – Palestine’s history
In 2016, British photographer James Morris published Time and Remains of Palestine. The images in this book bear witness to an absence of architectural monuments, and to the invisible moments of history buried in the rubble and wastelands of Palestine. Situated at the crossroads between Asia and Africa, Palestine has …
Read More »The Age of Depopulation
Surviving a World Gone Gray Although few yet see it coming, humans are about to enter a new era of history. Call it “the age of depopulation.” For the first time since the Black Death in the 1300s, the planetary population will decline. But whereas the last implosion was caused …
Read More »West Bank Israeli settlers fundraise online for military equipment
Israeli settlers resort to multinational nonprofit status and crowdfunding to purchase military equipment that is used against Palestinians in the West Bank. Heavily armed and openly coordinated across a range of online platforms, networks of connected fighters have emerged to secure and develop Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank. …
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