Earlier this month Saudi Arabia celebrated World Intellectual Property Day for the first time, as the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) launched a nationwide intellectual property awareness campaign. This is an important signal of Saudi Arabia’s ambition to create a knowledge economy, vital to the economic diversification envisaged by the Vision 2030 blueprint. “You cannot be depending on oil in a world where the knowledge economy is the driver of economic development — manufacturing is 20th century,” says Fahd Al-Rasheed

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.   

There was jubilation following the breakthrough in the negotiations between the Transitionary Military Council (TMC) and the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF), which meant that the prospects for a civilian-led council were good. However, on May 16, the head of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, dashed hopes that a transfer of power would occur soon by suspending negotiations for 72 hours, and now the TMC continues to impede such a transfer.  

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 Hui in China is a singular ethnic group. They speak Chinese but appear to have pursued a uniquely cultural evolution following immigration of its main grouping into China during the Mongol Yuan dynasty nearly eight centuries ago. But Hui societies only became evident in the first half of the 20th century, symbolizing Hui in–group consciousness; a nationwide semi–official China Huijiao [Islamic] Nation–Salvation Association was the national organization that played a significant part in uniting the Hui minority to support the Second Sino–Japanese War (The Resistance War against Japan) and in protecting the Hui minority in man

On 21 April 2019, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced the replacement of the commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Aziz Jafari, with his deputy, Hossein Salami. This move caps an ongoing process of regeneration within the top echelons of the IRGC which has been ongoing since early 2017. The decision to replace Jafari was due, but not entirely expected so soon after the White House designation of the IRGC as a terrorist group. Since 1997, Khamenei had placed an informal ten-year limit on the commandership of the IRGC. Aziz Jafari was therefore due to be replaced by 2017,

This Dirasat seeks to understand the present opposition in Congress and especially the Senate. First, it explains the indirect role that Congress can play in U.S. foreign policy, while highlighting the potential role of partisan polarization in U.S. foreign policy. Next, it provides context for the U.S.-Saudi relationship in Congress by examining past congressional actions with respect to the Kingdom. Finally, it examines congressional activity since the death of Jamal Khashoggi, focusing in particular on the coalition of senators that has formed to advance legislation critical of the Kingdom. &nbs

Since 2011 the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has diligently worked to amend its traditional immigration and social integration system, thus developing a comprehensive approach to the reception and accommodation of displaced populations, with a special focus on displaced Syrians and Yemenis. The Kingdom has had a long history of assisting displaced populations both within and outside its borders, including the acceptance of Palestinians and Uighurs, a number of whom have become naturalized. However, nothing in this history has resulted in the creation of a comprehensive approach to regularizing displacement. Thus, the modification of the immigration

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

Massive protests in Algerian cities revealed the profoundness of a prolonged regime crisis. The candidacy of President Bouteflika for a fifth term ignited the eruption of intensified and escalated mass demonstrations since 22 February 2019, leading to unprecedented political and constitutional complexities in Algeria. This publication is currently not available in English