Sunday, March 26, 2023

Kung Fu Panda vs. John Wayne

The brokered truce between Iran and Saudi Arabia is an astounding diplomatic victory for China. Conversely, it is a gigantic diplomatic failure on the part of the Biden administration and for the US’ strategic interests as far as the Middle East is concerned. The regional protagonists will emerge from this deal with one significant bonus, that of ‘de-escalation’. Whether it will be immediately translated in Yemen or I...

Biden’s Expedient Realignment with the Gulf Arabs?! 

Dana Stroul, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East recently attended a series of meetings in the GCC to discuss regional threats. Stroul leads the development of U.S. Department of Defense Policy and Strategy for Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Dana Stroul was clear about ...

Hezbollah’s Pyrrhic Victory

What Bashir Gemayel could not deliver, namely a peace treaty with Israel in 1982, and what Rafik Hariri could not offer, namely joining a bandwagon of Arab States willing to swap land for peace with Israel in the mid-1990s, Hezbollah did! Hezbollah, the narco-terrorist arm of Iran that controls Lebanon has delivered on the long-awaited promise to pacify the Southern border with Israel. Call it what you may, but the ma...

Davos without Panache

Davos’ organizers this year must feel a whiff of geopolitical pressure floating in the air. 2023 is starting with a certain je ne sais quoi of uneasiness for the debate on global trade and cross-border deals. Although many attendees, with impressive pedigrees, will show up in the remove Swiss ski resort, they’d have very little to show for. The mantra of ‘globalization saves us all’ which has been professed in ...

Federalize or Agonize !

From 1624 to 1642, under the influence of Richelieu, the Kingdom of France tried to centralize power in the hands of Louis XIII by “Breaking the Powerful”. The French termed the matter as ‘Cassez les Grands’ meaning to crush the Nobles who were choking the royal power and freely conspiring with Catholic Spain and Protestant England, at the expense of France. But the centralization model of Richelieu was no easy task. It ...