Review of Zeynep Özgen’s Pious Politics: Cultural Foundations of the Islamic Movement in Turkey
The book “Pious Politics” by Zeynep Özgen discusses the rise of the Islamist movement through a popular and well-organised development in Turkey over decades that rallied the masses, built vigorous political parties, and pressed for legislative reform. But an equally formative – if not more significant – cultural factor was the groundwork Islamists laid through…
Strategic Transactionalism: Russia’s Post-Assad Playbook in the Middle East
For most of 2025, Western capitals perceived that Russia’s position in the Middle East was in terminal decline. The fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 undermined Moscow’s policy in the Levant. Furthermore, under Israel’s offensive war against the Kremlin, which the grinding war in Ukraine had already absorbed, it seemed to have neither the…
Why India and Iran Cannot Afford to Drift Apart
The war that has convulsed West Asia since February has tested every regional relationship, but few as quietly and as consequentially as the one between India and Iran. Neither country asked for this conflict. Both are now absorbing its costs. As missiles gave way to a fragile ceasefire in recent weeks, New Delhi and Tehran…
Tuesday, August 4, 2026
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