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    Opinion articles

    Hillary Clinton & Donald Trump: evaluating their potential foreign policy and positions towards Iraq

    After months of debates, campaigning and interviews, the US Presidential elections are beginning to tail off. The ostensible incumbents for their respective party’s nomination – Hillary Clinton, the Democrat frontrunner, and Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate – seem to have beaten off dozens of other hopefuls and look...

    Saudi Arabia 2030 – a vision for oil independence

      In his interview with the pan-Arab news network Al-Arabiya, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman outlined his ambitious Vision 2030 roadmap pledging to wean Saudi Arabia off its oil dependency by 2030. The blueprint outlined a huge array of fiscal and economic reforms that will shift the...

    The Roots of Evil

    The Baath regime, which ruled Iraq through 1968-2003, wasn’t one that was known to have embraced Islam as an ideology or take it as an important source for its values. The regime has most often been described as a secular one of a singular directive approach to establish a...

    Turkish Presence in Northern Iraq: A Situation with Broad Regional Implications

    On December 3, 2015, a Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) regiment of 150 troops and 25 tanks deployed to the Iraqi town of Bashiqa, north of Mosul with the mission to reinforce members of the Turkish military already there training the Kurdish Peshmerga and Hashd al-Wataniforces in the lead-up to...

    Efficient On-Street Parking Controls – Key to Urban Traffic Management

    Statistics show that the private car, when measured against the space it occupies, as the most costly and extravagant mode of transport from land use perspective. This stems from that fact that the average car is only in use for around 10% of time. The private car not only...

    Saudi extremism and the “uncomfortable truths” the West needs to face

    On 4 February, a Saudi military spokesman, Ahmed al-Asiri, announced that the Arabian kingdom is ready to send ground troops to Syria to fight against Daesh/ISIS, should the US-led coalition decide to carry out ground operations against the terrorist group. It is not the first time Saudi Arabia shows its...

    Putin focuses on foreign policy in the Middle East

    Perhaps it was the difficult economic conditions at home, or because of the unpopular decisions that risks making President Putin the man of the elite rather than the man of the people, but what was clear to see in his annual press conference on 17 December was the Putin...

    Tehran’s historic summit from partnership to alliance

    Yassin Majeed, Researcher and writer in regional affairs Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Iran on the 23rd of November 2015 is considered an exceptional political event in light of international and regional transformations. What increased the importance of the visit, which is the second visit of President Putin to...

    Russia’s new role in Syria… Causes and Consequences

    The civil war in Syria has exceeded its fourth year, as the conflict continues bloodier, crueller and destructive than before. No indications in the horizon to the Syrians and the world, the fate of things in the country, and its fate, or which is the party that will be...