Summary: the Syrian president who has conducted a ruthless and bloody war now appears poised to be welcomed back into the Arab fold by fellow dictators and authoritarian ruling families.
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: the recent decision by OPEC+ to cut production was a jab in the eye to the West but one that has been a long time coming.
Summary: with the protest movement virtually silenced, the opposition either in jail or in exile, Bahrain’s ruling family is moving forward, building on higher oil prices and financial support from its GCC neighbours to meet at least some of the concerns of its citizens.
Summary: the recent visit has less to do with commercial arrangements than with Abu Dhabi’s desire to shore up support for the Abraham Accords and find a way out of the Yemen quagmire using Oman as an interlocutor.
Summary: an end to the blockade of Qatar last year has, on the surface, eased tensions between Abu Dhabi and Doha but look a little deeper and the animosity remains.
Summary: the Sunni Arab world has trouble coming to terms with its past and imagining its future. A new kind of pan-Arabism could be the next ideology to drive the revolution forward.
Summary: Turki bin Salman is the quiet money man, the consigliere, in the family business of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and his star is rising as the already immense fortune of Salman’s immediate family continues to grow and grow.
Summary: Turki bin Salman is the quiet money man, the consigliere, in the family business of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and his star is rising as the already immense fortune of Salman’s immediate family continues to grow and grow.
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.
