March, 2021

• 17 March

  Algeria’s Islamist parties failing to inspire

  

  Moderate Islamist parties in Algeria, which have been weakened by factionalism and internal disagreements over the years, are unlikely to increase their base in the upcoming general and local elections. Algeria’s moderate Islamist parties are unlikely to be able to capitalize on the snap general and local elections that President …

  Read More »
• 17 March

  Washington’s Afghan plan diplomatic godsend for Ankara

  

  A US peace plan for Afghanistan, involving intra-Afghan talks in Turkey, could offer Ankara a chance to raise its international profile and break the ice with Washington. US President Joe Biden is still keeping his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan waiting for a phone call, but Washington has recently cheered …

  Read More »
• 17 March

  Biden leaves Syria on back burner as war marks 10 years

  

  In his first months in office, President Joe Biden’s team has signaled that Syria’s civil war won’t be among his top foreign policy priorities. “We failed,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said of the Barack Obama administration’s approach to Syria. “Not for want of trying, but we failed.” …

  Read More »
• 17 March

  Brexit Still Hasn’t Solved the Problem of Northern Ireland

  

  The two main political parties in Northern Ireland announced a deal last month to restore the region’s power-sharing government, which had ceased to function three years ago. Within 24 hours of the announcement of the deal on Jan. 10, which was brokered by the British and Irish governments, Northern Ireland’s …

  Read More »
• 17 March

  In Northern Ireland, There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Good Brexit’

  

  One of the main attractions at the local museum in Newry, a bustling market town some 40 miles south of Belfast, is an old wooden sign. Painted on a chalky white background, its tall red letters proclaim in Irish, then in English: “Custaim: Stad, Customs: Stop.” For decades, this sign …

  Read More »
• 17 March

  For the U.K. and Ireland, Brexit and COVID-19 Are a Perfect Storm

  

  As the world braces for a prolonged economic downturn due to the coronavirus pandemic, the United Kingdom and Ireland may have to face this crisis alongside another, partly self-inflicted one: a no-deal Brexit. The U.K. officially left the European Union in January and is currently in a transition period that …

  Read More »
• 17 March

  In the Aftermath of Brexit, What Can ‘Global Britain’ Be?

  

  Over the past four years, as the United Kingdom has wrestled with the consequences of its narrow vote to leave the European Union, there has been little to no broader foreign policy debate in the country. Instead, Britons seem to have become caught between three temperaments. There are the catastrophists, …

  Read More »
• 17 March

  The Many Contradictions of ‘Global Britain’ in the Gulf

  

  Since the 2016 Brexit referendum, the United Kingdom has been trying hard to figure out its new position on the global stage. Not without a certain degree of nostalgia, the ruling Conservative Party has put forward the idea of “global Britain,” reviving old imperial networks and repositioning London at their …

  Read More »
• 17 March

  The U.K.’s Incoherent China Strategy

  

  Earlier this month, the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, delivered a speech in Parliament setting out measures to ensure that British businesses do not profit from what he called the “industrial scale” forced labor of minority Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region. However, Raab’s remarks made no mention of …

  Read More »
• 17 March

  Syria: In the Middle of a Long Cycle

  

  On 6 March 2011, the local security services in the small town of Daraa, southern Syria, detained fifteen teenagers painting anti-government graffiti on fences and buildings. During the subsequent interrogations, the teens were allegedly subjected to unjustifiably cruel treatment and even torture. Since all the detainees were born to prominent …

  Read More »