Articles by: "Amin Saikal"
How the Middle East is adapting to a polarised world

The Middle East’s strategic equation is rapidly changing against the global backdrop of polarisation between democracies and autocracies. Its authoritarian rulers have lately taken a number of steps to safeguard their positions in this context …

Sudan’s double crises

Sudan is in the grip of two interrelated crises. One is grounded in the long-standing struggle between forces of authoritarianism and those demanding pro-democratic transformation of their country. The other lies in a battle for …

The limits of Beijing’s Middle East diplomacy

In China-brokered talks, the two oil-rich and rival states of Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to restore diplomatic relations after a seven-year split. Although the two sides need much confidence-building, their rapprochement carries the …

Jimmy Carter: a man of humanity

Former Democratic US President Jimmy Carter, who is spending the last stage of his life in home hospice care at the age of 98, will be most remembered not only for his humanity and humility …

Are Israel and Iran on a collision course?

Hostility between Israel and Iran has potentially reached a tipping point. They have been conducting covert operations against each other for years, but Israel’s recent drone attacks on Iranian military facilities in the province of …

Iran’s protests go back to the future

The public unrest that has gripped Iran since September, spearheaded by women, is essentially about the very objectives that the instigators of the 1978–79 Iranian revolution sought but failed to achieve—a pro-democracy transformation of the …