Politics & Society

Whether money launderers, kleptocrats, drug dealers, bank robbers, or ISIS, the common denominator of criminals worldwide is that they must move their money. With sanctions and tighter regulation in other places, Dubai has become a favored real estate market for pouring millions of dollars of illicit funds into luxury real estate.

Faced with chronic electricity shortages, Iraq has set a target to meet 10 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2028 through deployment of large-scale solar, wind, and biomass sources.

Pope Francis’ visit to Abu Dhabi may be the UAE’s effort to rebrand itself as an open and tolerant society, but many see it as little more than window dressing.

The energy ministers of...

As a result of the Syrian regime “winning” the civil war, Arab Gulf states have generally adapted to new strategies that accept President Bashar al-Assad and his circle staying in power.

Power outages in Iraq were one of the catalysts of large-scale protests in the summer of 2018. While the Iraqi government has made reforming the electricity sector one of its priorities, changes are slow.

While Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Arabian Gulf make some shallow progress towards improving women’s rights, the hundreds of women trying to flee the region make clear that true progress is still a long way off.

On this year’s International Women’s Day, eight years into the Syrian revolution, the country’s women journalists defy gender-based violence and criticism and continue, courageously, to report on Syrian life and the cruelty of the Assad regime.

Cairo’s historically antagonistic relationship with the African Union (AU) has not deterred Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi from embracing his new role as chairman of the pan-African organization for 2019. While the international community is still unsure of what al-Sisi hopes to achieve in his new position, his chairmanship of the AU is likely to be just as contentious as his leadership of Egypt.

Amid several sensitive issues, including the Egyptian coup of 2013, the Qatar crisis, and the Jamal Khashoggi saga, bilateral relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia have recently deteriorated significantly. Riyadh’s growing partnership with the Kurdish Marxist militia, the YPG, in northern Syria now threatens to further escalate tension in Turkish-Saudi relations to an entirely new level.