- Dr. James M. Dorsey
- July 6, 2021
- Paper No. 2089
Saudi Arabia has stepped up efforts to outflank the UAE and Qatar as the Gulf’s commercial, cultural, and/or geostrategic hub.
UAE
- Jordan Cope
- March 25, 2021
- Paper No. 1977
The UAE has long been the main sponsor of global football (soccer). In recent years, Qatar has sought to usurp that role, competing for club, league, and tournament sponsorships even as it competes for influence in the Middle East’s proxy wars. The UAE and Qatar have reconciled, but there is reason to believe Doha may be using football sponsorships to draw attention and conceal its Islamism as it seeks to supplant Saudi and Emirati influence.
- Dr. James M. Dorsey
- March 9, 2021
- Paper No. 1956
As Russian FM Sergei Lavrov embarks on a four-day visit to the Gulf, Middle Eastern leaders are either struggling to get a grip on Joe Biden’s recalibration of US policy in the region or signaling their refusal to adapt to the president’s approach.
- Dr. James M. Dorsey
- March 1, 2021
- Paper No. 1946
The Biden administration’s publication of a US intelligence report that holds Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi creates a fundamental challenge to the kingdom’s geopolitical ambitions.
- Rafael Castro
- February 7, 2021
- Paper No. 1920
Since its establishment in 2005, the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG), formerly known as the Dubai School of Government, has emerged as a leading school of public policy in the United Arab Emirates. The quality of its researchers and resources, as well as its partnership with Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, make it a premier Arab institution in the sphere of governance. The MBRSG can play a significant role in steering broader developments in the Middle East and the Arab world.
- Dr. James M. Dorsey
- December 31, 2020
- Paper No. 1861
Increasing strains between Pakistan and its traditional Arab allies, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are about more than the Gulf States’ opportunistic targeting of India’s far more lucrative market. At the heart of the tensions, and potentially complicating Pakistan’s economic recovery, is India’s ability to help the Gulf States hedge their bets amid uncertainty about the continued US commitment to regional security.
- Dr. James M. Dorsey
- November 23, 2020
- Paper No. 1828
With the 2022 World Cup in Qatar only two years away and a resolution of the three-year-old Gulf rift nowhere in sight, government officials, soccer governance executives, and pundits are playing with the notion that the tournament could serve as an icebreaker in the dispute between Qatar and its detractors, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain.
- Dr. James M. Dorsey
- November 13, 2020
- Paper No. 1815
Public opinion polling in the Arab world suggests that autocratic leaders like Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman and his UAE counterpart, Muhammad bin Zayed, have gotten some things right. Both men have to varying degrees replaced religion with nationalism as the ideology legitimizing their rule and sought to ensure that countries in the region broadly adhere to their worldview.
- Dr. James M. Dorsey
- September 2, 2020
- Paper No. 1727
Saudi support for religious ultra-conservatism in Indonesia contradicts Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s promotion of an undefined form of moderate Islam intended to project his kingdom as tolerant, innovative, and forward-looking. It also suggests that Saudi Arabia is willing to work with the Muslim Brotherhood despite its denunciation of the group as a terrorist organization.
- Dr. James M. Dorsey
- July 15, 2020
- Paper No. 1645
Europe is being progressively sucked into the Middle East and North Africa’s myriad conflicts. As if wars on its doorstep in Libya and Syria were not enough, UAE support for an Eastern Mediterranean pipeline that could hurt Qatar economically—combined with Greek, Cypriot, and French opposition to Turkish moves—leaves Europe with few, if any, options but to get involved.