Research Papers


Number:
Author: Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
When a former furniture store owner and mayor of the small city of Surakarta, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, was elected as Indonesia’s seventh president in 2014, his limited experience in foreign affairs left many observers thinking his ‘presidency would see few significant breakthroughs in the country’s foreign policy.  However, despite these presumptions, Jokowi has succeeded in strengthening Indonesia’s relationship with various Middle Eastern partners, including Saudi Arabia. As a result, over the past decade, ties between Jakarta and Riyadh have solidified and become more multifaceted, with the scope of cooperation expanding from the diploma
Read more
Number:
Author: Hamad Sulaiman Othman Alturki
This publication is available in Arabic only.
Read more
Number:
Author: Rizwan Rafi Togoo
The commentary investigates recent political developments in Malaysia and their impact on bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, arguing that as a result of the recent change in power structures in Malaysia, the country will shift to a non-confrontational foreign policy based on economic pragmatism. Given Malaysia’s recent political developments, the commentary highlights the prospects for enhanced Saudi-Malaysian relations following a brief period of strained relations under the Mahathir Mohammed-led administration.
Read more
Number:
Author: John P. Burns
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leads and manages governance in China, a rising geopolitical and economic superpower. The party is organized territorially throughout the country, including in local jurisdictions like the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. However, because of Hong Kong’s recent past as a British colony, the party operates differently there than on the mainland. Understanding these differences sheds light on the operation of the CCP as the leading institution in the world’s largest country. The paper drills down into the history, organization, and functions of the local party in Hong Kong and its relationship to the central party and government
Read more
Number:
Author: Edited by Mohamed Al-Sbitli
This publication is available in Arabic only. 
Read more
Number: 64
Author: Mohammed Alrmizan
The study explores the evolution of Turkish foreign policy toward Central Asia over the past three decades. It shows how Avrasyacılık (Eurasianism) and pan-Turkism initially informed Turkish state approaches to the region following the independence of the Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan in the early 1990s. In the era of Erdoğan, Turkey first adopted pragmatism in the 2000s, but later underwent a course-correction in the 2010s that emphasized the development of political and military relations. As Turkey is not alone in Central Asia, the study also considers how its evolving footprint in the region was impacted by ext
Read more
Number:
Author: Hifa Almutawa
Since 2020, the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region has been one of the most terrifying  and challenging the Horn of Africa has confronted in decades. It has been more than a year since  Ethiopia’s federal government, under the direction of the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, launched  a military campaign against the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in Tigray. Moreover,  the two sides appear to have dug in, taking Ethiopia to the brink of collapse. Since late 2020, many  thousands of people have died, while others have been internally displaced or fled across the border  into neighboring Sudan. The United Nations Sec
Read more
Number:
Author: Edited by Mohamed Al-Sbitli
This publication is available in Arabic only. 
Read more
Number:
Author: Amal Kandeel
The need for access to and use of safe and clean energy resources is universal. But energy access and use are often constrained in challenging socioeconomic contexts and for disadvantaged communities. There is a real risk that vulnerable rural communities worldwide will continue to be left out of whatever energy development achievements are made in their respective regions or countries. This risk is elevated for rural communities in some agriculture-based Arab countries where poverty is widespread, and the scarcity of freshwater is high and rising due to population growth and the climate crisis. Improving energy security within these communities and reducing the risk that they w
Read more
Number:
Author: Abdullah Hamidaddin
Previous experiences of post-war reconstruction (PWR) inform us that it will always fall short of the expectations of donors and recipients alike. There is not one experience of such reconstruction where things went according to plan. Experts and writers have to go all the way back to post-WWII reconstruction in Europe and Japan to find successful examples, only to discover that their contexts were fundamentally different from any subsequent post-war scenarios. This report is available in Arabic only. Its English version has been published in “The Cairo Review of Global Affairs.&rd
Read more