Archive
America’s deterrence architecture in the Middle East is under growing strain, as repeated attacks, unequal security guarantees and overstretched military resources expose its weakening credibility.
Saudi Arabia is considering a regional non-aggression arrangement, Qatar wants economic interdependence with Tehran, and the UAE is calling for renewed dialogue.
A planned railway linking Saudi Arabia to Turkey through Jordan and Syria dreams of turning old war zones into trade corridors and giving the Gulf a new overland path to Europe.
Abu Dhabi’s post-OPEC energy strategy is beginning to take shape: more drilling, faster unconventional oil and gas development, and a push to secure export routes beyond the Strait of Hormuz.
The United Arab Emirates tried unsuccessfully to persuade Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf states to join a coordinated military response against Iran.
Saudi Arabia’s reported proposal for a Middle Eastern non-aggression pact with Iran presents an admission that the old regional security formula is breaking down.
Kuwait’s Interior Ministry said four people affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were arrested after allegedly attempting to enter Kuwaiti territory by sea near Bubiyan Island.
In Tehran’s calculation, the higher the cost of the war rises, regionally and internationally, the greater its ability to reach a more sustainable ceasefire that better accounts for its demands.
Gulf states face a persistent demographic contradiction: they possess immense wealth, advanced infrastructure, and ambitious foreign policies, but relatively small citizen populations.
The experiments unfolding in the Emirates and Kuwait are not merely regional phenomena. They are signals of a world in which the attributes and burdens of population are no longer taken as given.