A nuclear-capable Pakistani missile during testing in 2011. The international community hopes other aspiring nuclear nations can develop nuclear power without the military muscle.
EPA/INTER SERVICES/AAP
Through history, nuclear power has gone hand in hand with the nuclear arms race. But does it have to be this way? Closer international cooperation can help nations embrace nuclear power peacefully.
President Obama shakes hands with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in January 2015.
REUTERS/Jim Bourg
Saudi Arabia’s campaign in Yemen has had unclear strategic consequences and a terrible humanitarian cost. But does anyone believe it’s really over?
Foreign ministers Julie Bishop and Mohammad Zarif demonstrated a growing rapport between Australia and Iran in reaching agreement on some but not all fronts during her visit to Tehran.
EPA
Australia made progress on restoring trade and sharing intelligence on Islamic State in Iraq. Iran was less open to accepting the return of asylum seekers, which may prove a blessing in disguise.
A tribal militiaman loyal to President Hadi in Aden.
EPA/STR
The joint Arab assault on Yemen is so massive, planning must have been underway for a very long time.
The modern Saudi state rarely steps outside of its borders militarily unless it feels existentially threatened – as it is doing now in Yemen.
EPA/Yahya Arhab
Saudi Arabia’s incursion into Yemen is the latest manifestation of a long-standing struggle between it and Iran over statist issues of conflicting national interest, security and regional hegemony.
Here we go: Houthi rebels rally against Saudi Arabia.
EPA/Yahya Arhab
Iraq rolled into Tikrit with big promises of a major victory against Islamic State. The world is still waiting.
Saudi workers have been given a pay bonus by their new king, but unless oil prices rebound the country will find itself eating into its US$750 billion sovereign nest egg.
EPA/Ali Haider
In his first royal decree, Saudi Arabia’s newly crowned King Salman announced two-month bonuses for state employees, pensioners, students, and recipients of social service programs (that is, everyone in…
Will King Salman continue where Abdullah left off?
EPA
The death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has stirred debate about the future direction of the world’s richest Arab state. That direction will be significantly coloured by how his brother and successor…
Ever since its unification as a nation state in 1932, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been an oil-dominated economy. Most improvements and setbacks in its economic and social indicators can be invariably…
International politics is no place for starry-eyed idealists at the best of times. But this week the leaders of what we used to know as the “free world” in the dark days of the Cold War have plumbed new…
On the evening of January 22 2015, King Abdullah, the 90-year-old ruler of Saudi Arabia, died. The announcement that the 79-year-old Salman al-Saud is to become king was unsurprising, but given his health…
Curtis is one of few BBC film-makers given great artistic freedom.
Steve Rhodes
Most broadcasters – especially those who work at the BBC – must produce their programmes to conform to strict guidelines. They must be within five seconds of the required length, they must comply with…
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has passed away at age 90.
EPA/Ahmad Yusni
The passing of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia will change little in the kingdom and its relations with the West. The monarch had been ailing and reclusive for some years and his anointed successor (and…
Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger and the founder of an online liberal debating forum has become the most recent victim of the unjust Saudi justice system and the contradictions, one might say hypocrisy, of…
Flogging this man repeatedly over weeks is very dangerous.
WIkimedia Commons
It has been announced that, for medical reasons, the Saudi Arabian authorities have decided to postpone the ongoing punishment of Raif Badawi. The 31-year-old blogger was supposed to have received a second…
Did the Saudis and the Americans do a deal over oil in 2008-09?
solkanar
What on earth is going on in the oil market? Does the recent 60% collapse in oil prices in six months really reflect shifts in underlying supply and demand for crude oil? I’m afraid not, as I have been…
Senior Research Fellow, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at IUPUI and Journalist-fellow, Religion and Civic Culture Center, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences