Articles by: "David Gardner"
Erdogan: all-powerful and alone

He has finally done it. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who has won 12 electoral contests in a row since first coming to power with his neo-Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002, …

President dangerously Trumps good sense

Donald Trump has just unshackled Iran from its commitment to mothball most of its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. He has wilfully unravelled a historic diplomatic triumph and arms control milestone—which …

A young prince in a hurry

Mohammed bin Salman, the young crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, has established two things beyond doubt since his father, King Salman, ascended the throne in 2015 and handed him the keys …

Sykes-Picot at 100 (part 2)

Before toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003, much of the west backed the Iraqi dictator during the 1980–88 war against Iran. Iraq’s Shia majority fought against their coreligionists in the Shia Islamic Republic during that war. …

Sykes-Picot at 100 (part 1)

This month’s 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot agreement, the secret Anglo-French pact during World War I to carve French and British spheres of influence out of the then Ottoman territories of Greater Syria and Mesopotamia, …