Summary: a failed Saudi-backed ground offensive enabled Huthi forces to capture critical Red Sea territory, seize Western weaponry and severely disrupt global energy markets.
Saudi Arabia’s military defeat in Yemen has global consequences Read More »
Summary: Egypt was left out of the tripartite Mecca Pact signalling military weakness while military industries further strengthen their stranglehold on the economy; a militarised transportation system leaves scores of workers dead and injured; a luxury Mediterranean coastal project launches in the midst of a land compensation battle.
Egypt: State & Barracks Read More »
Summary: further to our 8 July newsletter our contributor Maged Mandour considers the internal and external implications of President Sisi’s National Security Doctrine following the inauguration of the military complex known as the Octagon and the creation of a new security committee.
The Sisi National Security Doctrine Read More »
Summary: on 4 July Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi inaugurated the Strategic Command Headquarters in his New Administrative Capital as a powerful statement of the extent to which the Egyptian state has become a militarised force that defines civilian society as a hostile terrain.
Sisi’s Octagon Is Built for the Enemy Within Read More »
Summary: stock exchange exuberance belies the dire straits of the Tunisian economy.
Tunisia’s economic mirage Read More »
Summary: Egypt and the UAE, close allies of Israel, find themselves and their concerns completely overlooked by a rampaging state whose only policy is to wage war.
Summary: Egypt stands accused of conducting air strikes on artisanal gold miners on the border with Sudan with dozens reportedly killed; settler organisations in collaboration with the IDF are calling for “security outposts” along Egypt’s border with Israel in the Negev Desert.
Summary: it has been a long time since the UAE and Saudi Arabia have seen eye to eye and the Iran war and subsequent MOU have done little else but paper over the cracks.
Unhappy neighbours: Saudi Arabia and the UAE Read More »
Summary: Sabry Nakhnoukh’s fall is the story of a gangster produced, tolerated, recycled and promoted by the state only to be discarded when his usefulness, protection or political value appear to have expired.
The Thug King Falls Out of Favour Read More »
Summary: the Egyptian military is a reflection of deliberate structural fragmentation built into decades of authoritarian rule; designed to prevent coups, under President Sisi it has become a finely tuned instrument of repression but as a war-fighting machine it is a logistical junk drawer.
The Egyptian military: diversification into dysfunction Read More »