ISSN 2618-9844 (Online version)
ISSN 1810-6374 (Print version)
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.
The Russian Armed Forces' Chief of Staff announced that “all terrorist units of ISIS on Syrian soil have been destroyed, and the territory is liberated”. Quite an achievement! — brought about by the Syrian Army, by Iran, by Hizbullah, and of course, by Russia’s military forces and its diplomats (the latter playing an important effective part, too). It represents a significant feat of multi-party co-ordination.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared “a complete victory” over the Islamic State on both banks of the Euphrates River in Syria.
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.
The Saudi king’s visit to Russia this week was an event Moscow has been anticipating for many years. Amid recent years' flurry of visits by Middle Eastern leaders, the Saudi monarch arguably had been the only one missing.
Iran and Economic Strain Will Make It Tough
Syria has suffered great damage after the years-long conflict. Regional and global actors’ joint efforts are required to root out terrorism, rebuild the economy and resolve a humanitarian crisis in the country.
Russian officials say Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud is coming to Moscow for a visit, but the kingdom has been playing coy, perhaps as a bargaining tactic.
Is the Middle East turning into the area of total war? What will the Sunni and Shiite rivalry end in? How to defeat terrorism?
The greatest analytical challenge in trying to understand the Syrian civil wars overcoming the propensity to see the world as it was and not as it is. It is tempting to look at Syria on a map and imagine that one day soon it could be put back together – if only a resolution could be found during diplomatic meetings in Astana or Istanbul.
One indication of the level of relations between the two countries are the ongoing preparations for the Saudi monarch’s upcoming visit to Russia, his first ever. Normally King Salman, 81, only graces the closest allies and most important partners with his presence.
Recently the American journal Politico, referring to some congressmen, reported on the proposal to the US administration from the Congress about possible withdrawal from the INF treaty, signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.
Middle East, espicially its Arab part, does not cease to surprise the rest of the world that would hardly be shocked after the turbulent Arab spring and recent political events in the US and Europe.
The morbid situation involving a political and information war that developed in the United States this winter, where the traditional establishment seeks to weaken or completely remove the incumbent president from office, portraying Trump and his retinue as Russian puppets and traitors, continues to worsen.
Currency issue is a political issue as much as it is an economic one, therefore political leadership is needed. Much depends on whether Japan can cooperate with Russia as the U.S. did with Saudi Arabia. Japan would be a stable buyer of natural gas and a stable provider of capital for Russia.
According to the strategy of “civilizational realism,” Russia and the Euro-Atlantic region would be recognized as separate civilizations, with their own gravitation orbits. Russia’s orbit would be much more modest, but still real. In this sense, the “Russian world” would no longer have a narrow ethnic interpretation.
On June 5, 2017, six Arab countries - Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia - announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Qatar.
For a country labelled a theocracy, Iran certainly knows how to throw a presidential election. One more cynical than I may even go so far as to posit that Iran has mastered the art of democracy, right down to the posters and caps.
The global energy market continues to be driven by the political economy of oil production and trade. Energy markets have come full circle returning to their fundamentals: oil is there to stay and play an important role in the era of slow melting of the oil surplus.
This article reviews key dynamics in the Middle Eastern oil and gas to explain how they shape the global energy picture. The author makes sense of the Saudi-Iran relations and the role OPEC is set to play in the emerging energy landscape. Finally, political developments in the broader region, including Turkey, are discussed.
Russia and Iran have found themselves to be partners of convenience in Syria. Their interaction is limited due to different motives behind their interference in the conflict and the possibility to harm their relations with third states.
The Syrian conflict has provided an example of the profound virtualization of politics (and even its power component) and of creating stable pre-engineered actors exclusively for the communication space. The “moderate opposition” is the most noteworthy one.
Numerous international competitors see the use of force as a solution to their challenges. In relations between Russia and NATO, China and Japan, Iran and Saudi Arabia, power plays unfold with unpredictable repercussions.
On July 14, 2015, the United States, Russia, China, France, UK, Germany, the European Union and Iran concluded the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the “Iran deal,” with the goal of ending the standoff over the Iranian nuclear program.
The Valdai Discussion Club hosted the 5th meeting of the Valdai Middle East dialogue, «The Middle East: From Violence to Security.» The following is a summary of the discussions and conclusions reached by its participants.
Russia and China’s strategic military cooperation is becoming ever closer. President Putin has announced that Russia is helping China build an early warning system to spot intercontinental ballistic missile launches.
This year’s Annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington DC revealed a growing preoccupation with the mounting signs of a slowdown in the world economy.
Catherine the Great is credited with saying that the only way to secure the borders of the Russian Empire is to expand them continuously. This logic is to some degree applicable to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which embarked on a path of geographical enlargement quite literally from the very first days of its existence.
Developing the Russian Far East and Siberia has been an important step in state-building for Russia. Although there have been debates about appropriate ideas and policies in the strategy, developing the vast frontier region and promoting relations with Asian countries has set a steadfast direction of development for Russia. Chinese-Russian cooperation in the border region during the early stages of imperial Russia’s policies in the Far East holds enlightening significance for today’s bilateral cooperation.
The main objective for the Shinzo Abe administration’s active engagement in supporting the involvement of Japanese companies in the development of the Russian Far East is to create favourable environment for resolution of the territorial issue and conclusion of a peace treaty with Russia. Japan–Russia cooperation in the Russian Far East is part of Abe’s 8-point cooperation plan with Moscow.