This article begins by analyzing the factors contributing to the recent unrest in Kazakhstan and how Russian commentators have leveraged media debates to call for the deployment of peacekeeping troops to the Central Asian country. Next, it explores the possible motivations driving Kazakh and Russian leaders’ cooperation in the deployment, along with the longer-term implications for their two countries. Finally, the article discusses the lessons that can be drawn from the recent events in Kazakhstan and what they might mean for Central Asia writ large.

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Rather than preventing conflict, internationally backed peace agreements in South Sudan, Sudan, and elsewhere have established a system of incentives that structure elite compacts in the capital that actually intensify the political economy of war. Such peace agreements rely on a normative vision of the state that is at odds with how states have actually come to function in many conflict zones in the world since the 1980s. This normative vision enables peace agreements to be easily instrumentalized by elites and is a major reason why such agreements fail to prevent conflict. Such failures are not contingent but are structural properties of peace agreements that at best aim for r

The results of the 2021 Iraqi elections were, at first glance, somewhat surprising. The Sadrist movement secured a sweeping victory while the pro-Iran wing within the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), which ran under the banner of the Fatah Alliance, lost over 70 percent of the seats they held in the previous parliament. The elections came on the heels of mass protests by citizens hailing from Shiite areas, previously a stronghold for supporters of Iran. The demonstrators denounced corruption, social injustice, and Iranian influence. Iranian consulates were subject to arson attacks, while pro-Iranian militias brutally cracked down on protesters (with over 600 killed) and k

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This paper will shed light on the Official Development Assistance (ODA) provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to developing countries worldwide. The KSA has contributed significantly to the well-being of many developing countries. However, for quite some time, such valuable assistance was not publicized enough in the media nor reflected in international aid platforms. This paper discusses KSA’s aid in detail, outlining the various categories of aid, where it is dispersed (by country and region), to which sectors, and how it has evolved over time. Moreover, it covers KSA’s assistance to developing countries in their quest to reach the Susta

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This paper considers the various risks to a sustained peace in Yemen and the possibilities of a continuation of the conflict by other means, focusing on factors that may be unintentionally generated by the peace process itself. These factors include the quest for inclusiveness and transitional justice, both of which have the potential to legitimate and institutionalize conflict-generated fault lines and identities, creating new obstacles to stability and expanding the field for contentious politics amongst the powerful, incubating new militant expressions of grievances. The paper also focuses on a risk that is not given sufficient attention, namely dehumanization, which has inte

Saudi Arabia’s economic future is at a turning-point. As the country increases investment in innovation to stimulate growth in non-oil sectors, cultivating an effective innovation ecosystem is key. Intellectual property (IP) is a powerful tool for spurring innovation. The dominant narrative in mainstream IP discourse is that higher IP standards lead to greater innovation outputs. However, this study argues that weaker IP standards are appropriate at this stage of the country’s economic development because they allow for smoother technology transfer that is needed to build innovation capacity and bridge existing gaps. To demonstrate the non-exceptional character of an

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