For Türkiye in particular, the Makkah pact extends Erdoğan’s established approach of positioning Ankara as indispensable across NATO, the Arab Gulf, and South Asia simultaneously. Turkish drone exports such as Riyadh’s 2023 purchase of the Baykar Akıncı system, which remains Ankara’s largest defence export contract to date, present the most obvious existing framework for the […]
After long anticipation and several decades of formative foreign policy, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, commonly rendered in English language commentary as the ‘Mecca’ pact, on the 7th of August 2026 at Al-Safa Palace in Makkah. The official […]
Saudi Arabia has long held aspirations of developing their own domestic nuclear program. Although progress on this front has been limited thus far, recent developments in the Middle East may potentially accelerate Saudi Arabia’s pursuit of nuclear technology. What motivates Saudi Arabia’s nuclear aspirations, and how are these aspirations nurtured or stymied by regional developments? […]
Iran’s threat perceptions, which centre the regime’s own survival, have been sharply triggered by Israel’s war in Gaza and the subsequent attacks on its soil. This has rendered its traditional forward defense strategy increasingly less viable amid the degradation of its long-time posture of regional deterrence. To safeguard its interests, Tehran is re-calibrating along two […]
When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, it raised concerns in neighbouring countries about their own security. The governments in most of the Central Asian countries, and in Iran were hostile toward the Taliban when the militant group ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s. There are now other Islamic extremist groups […]
China has historically pursued a restrained and economically focused presence in the Middle East, steering clear of direct involvement in conflicts and refraining from taking positions on contentious disputes. In this, Beijing has largely benefited from the security provisions offered by the United States, thus evading the security expenses and strategic challenges encountered by Washington. […]
After the disintegration of the USSR, Kazakhstan inherited a significant technological artefact of the Soviet space program, the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The management of the spaceport, from which the historically significant Sputnik 1 was launched, was transferred to Russia through a lease agreement from 1994 till 2050. However the Kazakhstani leadership had remained committed to the […]
With the October 2021 Iraqi Parliamentary elections recording the lowest ever voter turnout in post-2003 Iraq, there is little doubt that Iraq’s yet-to-be-announced next government already faces a legitimacy crisis. Amid the problems that Iraq faces in overcoming its domestic challenges, there is a massive driver of its cyclical political system in neighbouring Iran of […]
The UAE’s strategic consolidation of the island of Socotra will not enhance the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Yemen. Whilst it may further complicate the process, it will not necessarily stymie efforts either. However, what is likely to stymie prospects is the growing rift between Saudi Arabia and the UAE and […]
The Syrian regime forces besieged Daraa al-Balad area at the beginning of last August 2021, when the forces of the Iranian-backed Fourth Division brought military reinforcements to the area, and the Military Security Branch set up several checkpoints at the entrances and exits of the area, while closing the rest of the roads. Later, military […]
The current strategic and political situation in Libya seems almost unrecognizable from the perspective of just a year ago. For the first time in nearly a decade, Libya appears to have a widely supported transitional administration under recently appointed Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. There are also ongoing talks to unify the command structures of […]
China’s relationship to the Gulf could be changing. Previously, it avoided conflict and risk, which helped it establish good diplomatic relations and expand its commercial ties in the region. That approach may become harder given the high importance of Saudi Arabia and Iran to Chinese investments and the two countries’ own rivalry and competitive struggles […]
