A scholar who has closely followed reforms that MBS has made to Wahhabism, an austere form of Islam, explains the changes taking place in the Saudi kingdom and their impact.
New best friends? Syrian president Bashar al-Assad greets Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in Damascus, May 2023.
Syrian Presidency via Facebook via AP
Despite initiatives which appear to be normalising Suria’s relations with Arab states, Damascus remains isolated and insecure.
Technicians working to destroy the United States’ chemical weapons stockpile at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot on June 8, 2023, in Pueblo, Colo.
AAP Photo/David Zalubowski
When it comes to chemical weapons, American condemnation, even if hypocritical, is still valuable.
A U.S. artillery rocket system fires a missile during annual combat drills between the Philippine Marine Corps and U.S. Marine Corps in the northern Philippines in October 2022 in a region where the United States says it wants to deter China.
(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Why have U.S. allies refused to grapple with American global violence, despite its horrific consequences and the fact that it clearly affects how the non-western world responds to the country?
In a survey of 1,600 people from across Mosul, we asked what they thought of the millions of dollars being spent to reconstruct the heritage sites of the city.
Things looking up for the Bush-Berlusconi relationship.
Philippe Desmazes/AFP via Getty Images)
The former Italian prime minister died on June 12, 2023, at the age of 86. Throughout his terms in office he cultivated closer ties with the US – with mixed results.
Mourners preparing to bury the remains of 104 Yazidi victims in a cemetery in Sinjar, Iraq on Feb. 6, 2021. The Yazidis were killed by the Islamic State group in 2014, and were given a proper burial after the bodies were exhumed from mass graves and identified through DNA tests.
(AP Photo/Farid Abdulwahed)
For the Yazidi communities in northern Iraq, there is a need to improve mental health. The sense of cultural identity has the potential to improve psychological well-being.
An Iraqi person walks down a road blocked by burning tires in Basra in August 2002.
Hussein Faleh/AFP via Getty Images
The Bush administration invaded Iraq with plans for it to become a democracy. But according to some social science measures, the country isn’t any more democratic than it was before 2003.
US marines enter one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces in 2003.
US Marines Photo / Alamy Stock Photo
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, it is important to reflect on the use of war footage in media and the ethical questions around the use of footage depicting human death.
While some progress has been made, the coalition forces abjectly failed to achieve their central goals. But Australia has an opportunity now to make good on its promises.
An abandoned house in the old town of Mosul, Iraq.
(Ali Al-Baroodi, @ali_albaroodi)
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 led to civilian death and displacement. Twenty years later, Iraqis are telling their stories of conflict and trauma as they move towards healing.
A U.S. tank moves past a painting of Saddam Hussein in March 2003 in Nasiriyah, Iraq.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
University students today are too young to remember the March 2003 start of the Iraq War, which has future foreign policy implications and changes how the conflict should be taught.
From Beijing with friendship? It’s complicated.
Xinhua/Alamy Stock Photo
Detente between Tehran and Riyadh will not magically solve all the political and sectarian tensions in the Middle East.
Solidarity: a woman cuts her hair outside the Iranian embassy in Istanbul in support of Iranian women protesting against the hijab.
EPA-EFE/Erdem Sahin
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Mahdi Shaban, a Palestinian living in Gaza, paid for his master’s degree with earnings from digging graves.
Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Political and economic forces across the Middle East and North Africa combine to mean well-educated young people spend years looking for work, which delays their independence and adulthood.
‘Antigone leads Oedipus out of Thebes’ painting by Charles Francois Jalabert.
Collection Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille via Wikimedia Commons