Middle East Oil Prices Top $100: What Strait of Hormuz Risks Mean for You
The ongoing Iran conflict has severely impacted global oil supply through the vital Strait of Hormuz, pushing prices significantly above pre-war levels.
Middle East Window: news, economy and analysis from across the Middle East
Politics
More Politics →Alhurra and the Limits of America's Arabic-Language Broadcasting
Washington spent two decades and hundreds of millions of dollars trying to win Arab audiences with a satellite channel. The story of Alhurra says a lot about how public diplomacy works, and how it doesn't.
Divided at Home: How Israelis Saw the Iraq War
The idea that Israel pushed America into Iraq was popular on both the left and the right. The record at home was messier: Israeli opinion was split, and the government's calculations were more cautious than the neoconservative project.
Can American and Muslim Democracy Advocates Find Common Ground?
Washington's democracy rhetoric after 2001 raised hopes of a rapprochement with reformers in the Muslim world. The gap between words and policy made the partnership harder than it looked.
A Jilted Lover Wooed Again: America and Pakistan
Pakistanis often describe their relationship with the United States as a betrayal by a partner who only calls when it needs something. The history explains why the anger runs so deep.
Energy
More Energy →Middle East Oil Prices Top $100: What Strait of Hormuz Risks Mean for You
The ongoing Iran conflict has severely impacted global oil supply through the vital Strait of Hormuz, pushing prices significantly above pre-war levels.
Kurdistan Oil Exports: From 100,000 Barrels a Day to a Decade of Disputes
When the Kurdistan Region's exports first passed 100,000 barrels a day, it looked like the start of an oil boom. What followed was a long fight with Baghdad over who controls Kurdish crude and its revenue.
Fuel Theft Hits Iraq's Power Grid, Inspector Says
Stolen fuel, corruption and mismanagement have kept Iraq's electricity sector failing for two decades, despite tens of billions of dollars in spending.
Iraq
More Iraq →100,000 Iraqi Dead: The Lancet Studies and the Media
In 2004 and 2006, two surveys in The Lancet estimated that the Iraq war had killed far more civilians than officials acknowledged. The fierce reaction to them became a case study in how wars are counted.
Saddam's Secrets: The Claim That Iraq's Weapons Went to Syria
A former Iraqi air force general wrote that Saddam Hussein had flown his weapons of mass destruction to Syria before the 2003 invasion. The claim sold books; the evidence never materialised.
Iraqi Court Sentences 15 to Die After Massacre
In 2011 an Iraqi court sentenced fifteen men to death for the massacre of dozens of people at a wedding during the sectarian war. The case illustrated both the scale of the violence and the shortcomings of Iraqi justice.
Northern Cement State Company Makes 13 Billion Iraqi Dinar Gains in First Half of 2011
Iraq's state cement makers profited from the post-war construction boom. Their story shows both the potential and the problems of Iraq's state-owned industry.
Gulf
More Gulf →Bahrain Unrest Brings Economy to a Standstill
The 2011 uprising hit Bahrain's banks, tourism and credit rating at once. More than a decade later, the island is still paying for the crisis in debt and dependence on its Gulf neighbours.
Heir to the Saudi Throne Dies in New York
Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz died in October 2011, setting off the first of several rapid changes in Saudi Arabia's line of succession.
Palestine & Israel
More Palestine & Israel →A Just Israeli-Palestinian Peace: Jeff Halper's Integrated Strategy
The founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions argued that occupation is a system, and that only a strategy aimed at the whole system could end it. His thinking has travelled a long way since.
The One-State Solution: A Democratic State in Israel and Palestine?
Once a fringe idea, the call for a single democratic state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean now features in mainstream debate. Where did it come from, and what are its critics' objections?
Occupation, Terror and the Geneva Conventions
Is it legitimate to compare the violence of occupation with the violence of attacks on civilians? The argument, made by Israeli activists like Jeff Halper, still divides opinion sharply.
Khaled Salam: The Man Who Managed Arafat's Money
Mohammed Rashid, known as Khaled Salam, controlled much of the Palestinian Authority's commercial wealth in the Arafat years. The story of that money became a story about accountability.