Russia in Global Affairs

Chinese geoeconomics is making a great leap forward to adjust to rapid technological developments and a changing international distribution of power. The world is entering a new industrial revolution that further decouples the relationship between capital and labour, which incentivises Beijing to abandon its reliance on low-wage competitiveness and instead take the lead in developing high-tech strategic industries with its digital Silk Road.

It is estimated that there are approximately 1.6 billion Muslims in the world today, who represent over 20% of the world’s population. No one is exempt from the vagaries of climate change, and Muslims have to accept their share of the responsibility.

Russia and the United States have very different approaches and goals in the Middle East, but they could lead to a solution in Syria.

It must be stated right from the outset that the outgoing year has failed to bring this long-suffering region either any perceptible change for the better or a consummation of aspirations that provided a powerful impetus to the million-strong protests in the Arab world seven years ago.

President Trump announced that the U.S. was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and would move the American embassy to that city from Tel Aviv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared “a complete victory” over the Islamic State on both banks of the Euphrates River in Syria.

It is too early to make any final judgements about the Donald Trump Administration strategy in the Middle East region, but for the Kremlin there are grounds to suspect that the United States might get back to its past posture.

Muqtada al-Sadr is a descendent of the religious Sadr dynasty, a prominent family of Shiite intellectuals. He is one of a small number of politicians who possess significant influence in modern Iraq and who are capable of inspiring hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets.

One of the most disturbing trends in international politics today is a rapid deterioration of the security situation in the Gulf area, — a region which remains a critically important part of the global economy, finance and transportation.