Blog post archive
Displaying 40 blog posts in series Middle East
November 2024
Israel Has Escalated Its Shadow War Against UNRWA. What Happens Now?
On 4 November, the Israeli Foreign Ministry cancelled the agreement the country signed with UNRWA in 1967. A week earlier, the Knesset had passed legislation banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Why is Israel doing this, and what could the consequences be? UNRWA a free ...
Perplexed Vladimir Putin Reckons With Outcome of US Elections
The Kremlin had confidently expected confusion and turmoil following the US presidential election. Instead, a definite outcome and the commitment to a smooth transition of power are set to shape the US political environment for the next couple of months. The significant majority of Russians preferred Donald Trump as the ...
February 2024
Forgotten Victims: Gaza's Journalists & UN Workers
The war in Gaza is the most deadly in modern times for journalists and UN personnel. Despite the seriousness of the situation, these killings are under-reported. The war in Gaza is an exceptionally gruesome conflict, as shown by all the relevant statistics. Since Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) attacked ...
Assessing Russia’s Maneuvers in the Middle East Amidst Escalating Tensions
On Friday, February 2, the United States conducted a massive airstrike, targeting terrorist militia bases in Iraq and Syria but reverberating across Russian geopolitical designs. In Russia’s grand strategy, the escalation of tensions in the broader Middle East triggered by the shocking attack by Hamas terrorists on Israel on October ...
November 2023
Russian Influence Diminished in Remaking the Middle East
The Kremlin has welcomed the Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza that began on November 24. The pause, however, does not fit into Russia’s larger designs for the Middle East. From Moscow’s perspective, further escalation would have been a much better option in disrupting the US-led world order. Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka ...
Three Factors Put Egypt in a Fix
Egypt plays a key role in the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel. Now the Egyptians are nervous. With its almost 100 million inhabitants and its borders with both Gaza and Israel, Egypt plays a key role in the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel. Right now, the Egyptian regime ...
October 2023
The Middle East at a Crossroads: Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon
The heart of the Middle East, known for its intricate geopolitics, ever-evolving conflicts, and tumultuous history, is once again in the throes of change. As I stand here in Oslo, my thoughts are irresistibly drawn to Lebanon, my homeland, and the crises that have unfolded in the region to which ...
Lebanon’s Impending Catastrophes
Lebanon is teetering on the brink of an abyss that it is not equipped to deal with. If Hezbollah drags Lebanon into a war, the consequences will be catastrophic for a country that is already deep in economic and political crisis. At the time of writing, Hezbollah, together with Palestinian ...
UNRWA: In Anticipation of a Double Collapse
There is a looming infrastructural collapse of parts of UNRWA, the UN’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees. Such a collapse could bring down the Palestinian Authority (PA) in its wake. That would be a catastrophe for the situation on the occupied West Bank. On the Israeli-occupied West Bank, things are ...
A New Geopolitical Chapter for the Middle East?
In recent years, several Arab countries have adopted a more pragmatic attitude towards Israel. Some have even signed official agreements. But much geopolitical progress is now in danger of being reversed – and not only within the region. Over recent years, the Palestinians have become increasingly isolated in the Arab ...
August 2023
In the Israeli Democracy Protests, the Flag Has Become the Contentious Topic – The Occupation Is Not.
For the past few months Israel has experienced mass demonstrations both for and against the attempted judicial “reforms” by the current right-wing government. A striking visual theme of these protests have been the ubiquity of the Israeli flag. The use of national symbols like the Israeli flag is nothing unusual for Israel’s right-wing ...
The Two-State Solution Vacuum
In Israel/Palestine, it is an established truism that there is no alternative to the two-state solution. When the Oslo Accord was signed in September 1993, this solution was its central premise. Developments over the past 30 years, however, have rendered it impossible. This is something we must talk about. Jerusalem, ...
March 2022
Transactional Engagements: Middle Eastern Responses to the Ukrainian War
Russia’s war in Ukraine has been met with global condemnation drawing NATO and the EU closer together in coordinating collective responses. In contrast to this coordinated front among US, French and German responses, it is worth drawing attention to the mixed regional responses among states in the Middle East for ...
Will the Russian-Ukrainian War Resonate in Syria?
The predictable and yet shockingly brutal Russian invasion into Ukraine on 24 February 2022 has in the course of three weeks sent many tremors across the world system. Major stock markets experience strong corrections, oil prices register new highs, importers of wheat and sunflower oil are nervously checking their stocks, ...
June 2021
Do Cease-Fires in Syria Work? We Checked the Data.
Our research looks at 10 years of truces in Syria. A missile attack last weekend in northern Syria left a hospital in ruins and further casualties in a residential area. But these types of attacks have become less common in Syria. Although this civil war remains among the most devastating ...
Russia Readying for Compromise on the UN Humanitarian Aid to Syria
The UN Security Council is due to make a decision on a particular and particularly controversial issue pertaining to the humanitarian disaster in Syria by July 10, and Russia positions itself as the key part of the problem and a necessary contributor to a solution. The discord in the UN ...
May 2021
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Notes From a Small Neigboring Island – Lessons from the reactions to the crisis
In a series of brief blog posts, researchers of the PRIO Middle East Centre offer their reflections on the unfolding Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Beyond its immediate effects and first reading, the recent crisis in the Middle East has accentuated some emerging issues and lead to reflections of wider applicability. … individual ...
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Short notes on military technologies
In a series of brief blog posts, researchers of the PRIO Middle East Centre offer their reflections on the unfolding Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The armed conflict unfolding over the last few days, opposing Israel to the Palestinians, represented some novelties when compared to previous outbreaks. On the military front, which materialized ...
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Arab Street and Erdoğan
In a series of brief blog posts, researchers of the PRIO Middle East Centre offer their reflections on the unfolding Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The conflict in Gaza has once again highlighted the tense relationship between Turkey and the United States with President Erdoğan using incendiary language in his criticism of Israel ...
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Unity Intifada - A Manifesto for Dignity and Hope
In a series of brief blog posts, researchers of the PRIO Middle East Centre offer their reflections on the unfolding Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. As in the waves of anger that erupted in October 2015 and July 2017, the current popular action in Jerusalem represents resistance politics in its most vibrant form. These contentious collective ...
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Addressing the Structures
In a series of brief blog posts, researchers of the PRIO Middle East Centre offer their reflections on the unfolding Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The two-way rocket salvos into and from Gaza feels like a tedious repetition of tragedies past. The world has seen this before, and tragically we will probably see ...
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