Summary: after quadrupling their debt burden since 2014, the Gulf states are pausing new borrowing, thanks to reforms and the oil windfall. Oman and Qatar are even actively deleveraging. However, Bahrain and Sharjah remain in precarious positions.
Summary: the Gulf states are seeing Washington through far different eyes than Washington is seeing them. America is playing from an old playbook, without realising that the game has changed and nowhere is this more clearly highlighted than by Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Summary: if it is the case that yet another parliamentary election produces more bickering and gridlock between the ruling family and MPs then once again Kuwaiti women will be the biggest losers.
Summary: there was a flurry of suggestions that the Saudi crown prince would come to London for the Queen’s funeral but in the end he didn’t show up while other senior Gulf dignitaries did.
Summary: the decision to bring Syria back into the Interpol fold has serious and long-term consequences as the battle to contain the captagon trade in the Gulf and the wider Middle East intensifies.
At number 2 in the all-time top ten is Christopher Davidson’s podcast Putin’s war plays well with MENA authoritarians which aired 1 April, 2022. Chris is an academic and author of several books on the politics and foreign affairs of the Gulf states and a regular contributor to the Arab Digest newsletter. His latest book published by Hurst is titled From Sheikhs to Sultanism.
Summary: Jordan sees in a cautious rapprochement with Iran an opportunity to improve strained relations with the GCC and to find a way out of its economic crisis.
Our podcast Cairo and Ankara: a new axis? ranks number 7 in the Arab Digest top ten podcast list. It was released 18 June 2021 and features Ali Bakir, a research assistant professor at Ibn Khaldoon center for Humanities and Social Sciences in Doha. Ali is an analyst following geopolitical and security trends in the Middle East, and especially those between Turkey and the Arab world. His conversation with Digest editor William Law focussed on the thaw in relations between Cairo and Ankara.
Summary: a fiery opposition leader builds momentum as Kuwait’s parliamentary system staggers on from one crisis to the next.
Summary: as temperatures rise the impact of climate change on the Middle East and North Africa grows ever more dire and the challenge for the region’s leaders to work together to head off a climate catastrophe ever more urgent.
