Strategic Transnationalism: 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…
Legacy of Leadership: Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and the Gulf’s New Horizon
The former Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, whose 18-year rule from 1995 to 2013 transformed a marginal Gulf Sheikhdom into an influential regional actor in the Middle East, died on July 12 at the age of 74. In a statement announcing his passing, Qatar’s Amiri Diwan called it “the great loss…
Friday, July 31, 2026
Beyond News, Without Bias