The report is the first in a series that will look at several China-linked park-port complexes in the GCC. This particular report investigates the historical origins, developmental trajectory, and current challenges facing the Silk City project in Kuwait. It is interested in gauging the extent to which Chinese actors – the state and economic entities -

In September 2018, the State of Eritrea and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia made a historic peace agreement that ended the twenty-year conflict between them. The agreement, otherwise known as the Jeddah Peace Pact, was finalized in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Concluded through international diplomatic efforts led by the African Union, the United States of America, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the pact succeeded in restoring peace between Eritrea and Ethiopia despite the failure of all previous international mediatory efforts. To sustain and consolidate the peace between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the Kingdom initiated strategies t

This commentary provides an overview of China’s engagement with the Houthi movement over the past few years. It compares Beijing’s relationship with the Houthis to that of another armed non-state actor, the Taliban, with an eye towards identifying the trajectory this engagement might take. The commentary also considers how this relationship, in addition to the developments taking place in Sino-Saudi relations, are shaping Chinese mediation efforts in Yemen since 2015.

Iran has a significant advantage in asymmetric military capabilities, which are based on terrorist agents and low-cost military technology. Although international sanctions have limited Iran’s ability to purchase or develop advanced technology in almost all sectors, it still has the basic electronic capacity to launch attacks on its opponents, which is also uses extensively for espionage and theft. Iran has been the subject of many devastating cyberattacks in the past, so it has learned the value of having its own electronic capability. This enabled Iran to use “electronic repression” to confront the protests that spread across the Internet

This report outlines the Azerbaijani-Saudi relationship from historical, economic and recent perspectives and developments like recent military agreements, economic exchanges, trade, and tourism while considering regional and international challenge issues in the Middle East. At first, the report briefs on the historical aspect of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their mutual and bilateral relationship. Second, it focuses on economic values between Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in terms of trade and tourism. Third, the report provides some analysis on regional and international implication

The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index is one of the most widely used global metrics for assessing a country’s regulatory performance. Saudi officials have frequently employed it to

With the latest technological changes such as the fourth Industrial Revolution and a new wave of automation, the “future of work and education” has been a major point of discussion around the world. It was also one of the key items on the agenda of the G20, which took place in Japan this year and will be hosted by Saudi Arabia in 2020. The T20 (Think20), an intellectual backbone of the G20, has been running a task force dedicated to this issue, where thinkers and researchers from its member states meet to discuss ways to address challenges posed to individuals, businesses, and governments in the digital age.  

For all such a various array of events in the Middle East, there is one title: a scramble toward forging a new regional system after two competing models. One model seeks a regional system that rests on sovereign nation-states, whereas the other envisions a hybrid regional system composed of weaker states linked with sub-state actors performing state functions in the regional balance of power. While Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy falls into the former model, Iran’s foreign policy is informed by the latter. Each of them is driven by specific perceptions and structural imperatives to adopt their respective model.   

The mass movement in Sudan, which dates back to 19 December 2018, carried the element of pure surprise and absolute astonishment, despite the fact that this uprising is the natural product of accumulated factors, historical and economic.  This study is divided into three parts, preceded by an introduction. The first part deals with the geography of the uprising in terms of the causes and trends of the events as well as the range of mobilization. The second part outlines the central actors/players in the Sudanese mobilization. The third part illustrates the stance of the Sudanese military from the upri

The article focuses on narrating how historically political attention has been gradating toward climate change issues, how the issue of climate change, weather research, the study of climate change drivers, and ways to reduce the emissions of climate change have stepped out from the scientific field, collided with politics and conflict of interest of economic nations, and how new blocs may be formed to address this issue, which poses a real threat to the environment, the safety of the planet and future generations, from which no state is excluded. On the other hand, it has become a tool of political pressure and a new dispute, as states have begun to p