Subterms
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is grappling with COVID-19, an unresolved war in Yemen and collapsed oil prices. At the same time, recurrent purges of opponents of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) are harming the country’s foreign investment climate. Within this context, the ambitious Vision 2030 initiative to transform Saudi economy and society is […] More
The end of one country, two systems is now clearly in sight. Though Beijing promised to respect Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy for a full half-century, it has chipped and then hacked away at them since the handover in 1997. Almost a year ago, the people of Hong Kong startled themselves and the world with […] More
Economists like to think of the wreckage caused by stock market downturns, widespread bankruptcies and corporate downsizing as “creative destruction.” As it destroys the old and the dysfunctional, the capitalist system continually spurs innovation, much as a forest fire prepares the ground for new growth. Or so the representatives of the dismal science argue. Donald […] More
The COVID-19 pandemic is dominating the news, and rightly so. This pandemic is a human rights crisis, and millions of people are at risk. However, it is crucially important that the media continue to report on what else is happening in different countries around the world. In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, a journalist […] More
Since December 2019, India has witnessed a series of protests against the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the government’s decision to create a National Register of Citizens (NRC). The CAA proposes to give fast-track citizenship to religious minorities of three neighboring countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. However, it blatantly excludes Muslims while failing to […] More
China has not exactly had difficulty projecting its power within the existing system of multilateral organizations. A Chinese national is now in charge of four of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations: the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN Industrial Development Organization and the International Telecommunication Union. By […] More
On February 21, yet another nominal election will take place in Iran, coming on the heels of widespread protests in over 100 cities at the end of last year. It was the third time that the Iranian government faced protests in the last decade and the biggest since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. According to various […] More
To the extent that people know anything about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), they reasonably assume that they have something to do with the economy (development), and with the environment (sustainability). They’re only partly right. The bigger challenge, especially for countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, is governance. The 17 SDGs were […] More
