Within the space of a week, two major summits were held in Beijing: the APEC summit and the bilateral summit between US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Another two were held in Myanmar: the ASEAN 2014 summit and the 9th East (...)
I still cannot believe the feebleness of performance that is being brought to bear in dealing with a crucial international cause, namely the fight against terrorist organisations. Like others, I thought that perhaps the ambiguity was deliberate, a (...)
The world is changing quickly. The Arab region is changing at perhaps an even faster pace. Most of us are focused on comparisons between the pace of change in the world and that in or between regions. In our obsession with quantity and form we (...)
Many hearts in the Arab world had two occasions to rejoice during the past 10 days. Policymakers, analysts and journalists cheered when US President Barack Obama announced his decision to dispatch his airplanes to bomb specific targets in northern (...)
They came from near and far to exchange views and understandings on issues that threaten peace and security in the Middle East. They discussed the “amazing transformation” in the pattern of interactions among Gulf Cooperation Council members. They (...)
That I have chosen to write again on the actual and potential effects of recent developments in the Ukraine on Egypt and Egyptian foreign policy does not signify that I overrate Egypt's global importance, although I do believe that its geographic (...)
Israel rejoiced at the international resolution to strip Syria of its chemical weapons arsenal and to destroy that arsenal to render it unusable. But the jubilation did not last long. Within a few days of the resolution, during which Israel and its (...)
Current international developments suggest an idea that, at first glance, appears far-fetched or impossible. As we have learned from world wars and major regional conflicts, books and studies on international relations, and the practices of experts (...)
Over or nearly over are the most important days in the opening of the UN General Assembly's new session, which will go down on record as one of the most important in the history of the international organisation. The importance derives not so much (...)
I have never heard of a Nobel Prize laureate who relinquished that award or asked it to be withdrawn because he realised in a fit of conscience that he did not merit it or that the cause for which it had been awarded to him had never been realised. (...)
Once again the Arab peoples have to pay the price for the foolish obstinacy of a domestic power that claims the right to tyrannise its people and a foreign power that claims the right to give that despotic power a lesson.
Once again the Arab peoples (...)
Once again the Arab peoples have to pay the price for the foolish obstinacy of a domestic power that claims the right to tyrannise its people and a foreign power that claims the right to give that despotic power a lesson.
Once again the Arab peoples (...)
We cannot have national reconciliation, or aspire for a happy ending for the ongoing transitional period, unless Egyptian politicians and jihadists, the Islamists as well as the seculars, abandon their obsessive urge to please America.
The epic days (...)
Let's face it, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in deep trouble and his Justice and Development Party (JDP) may take a long time to recover.
All of that could have been averted, had the protests in Taksim Square been less angry, or had the authorities (...)
Many questions had been awaiting the speech Barack Obama delivered last week at the National Defence University in Washington. He answered some of the more controversial ones, while skirting around others that were of concern to specialists, notably (...)
It was a strange week for the US. As far as I know, nothing like it has ever happened before. It would be no exaggeration to say that the entire American political world has come out to confess, loud and clear and before the whole world, that the US (...)
The crisis in Egypt would have reached the point of no return were it not for the fact that the Administrative Court issued a ruling against the electoral law governing the parliamentary elections that would otherwise have proceeded on schedule on (...)
Revolutions keep surprising us. Each brings something new and retains for itself a distinct flavour that sets it apart from others. No two revolutions are alike. The Bolshevik Revolution had a character of its own, as did the French, the American, (...)
I followed the talks in Davos where leaders of the capitalist world congregate and after whom trail politicians from other parts of the world seeking to gain their good graces. I have to confess that as someone constantly on the search for new and (...)
Few would dispute that the government in Egypt is in crisis and that hope for a way out is growing dimmer by the day with each added complication. None would deny that this crisis has become a heavy burden on the country. It is sapping its assets, (...)
President Barack Obama will commence his second term of office in a few days amidst widespread speculations over his country's future. Discussion initially honed in on the future of US foreign policy, then turned to the decline in the US's prestige (...)
Though initially lauded by the Arabs as a bastion of new Islamist wisdom, as the Arab Spring went bad, in Syria in particular, the failures of Turkish acumen were revealed, writes Gamil Matar
Key officials of some Islamic countries in the Middle (...)
When religion defines foreign policy it will inevitably clash with national interests, creating the grounds for wars that only elites who rule in the name of religion win, writes Gamil Matar
That Egypt's president cites Quranic verses and uses (...)
While key players of the global South rush to snap up fresh opportunities across the black continent, Arab countries seem asleep at the wheel, writes Gamil Matar*
The race over Africa is on again. This time white men are not the main competitors, (...)
While uncertainty pertains as to who will dominate the 21st century, increasingly it appears that Latin America will lead the 22nd, writes Gamil Matar*
There are several instances of centuries-old prophecies of the rise of certain countries that (...)