Arab World

( Code Pink ) – While Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has been frantically shuttling around the Middle East trying to stop the Israeli coflict in Gaza from exploding into a regional war, the United States has also sent two aircraft carrier strike groups, a Marine Expeditionary Unit and 1,200 extra troops to the Middle […]

Climate Crisis

COP28: inside the United Arab Emirates, the Oil Giant hosting 2023 Climate Change Summit

The Conversation

By Emilie Rutledge, The Open University and Aiora Zabala, The Open University | – The United Arab Emirates (UAE), the world’s seventh largest oil producer, will host the 28th UN climate change summit (COP28) in Dubai from November 30 to December 12. Presiding over the conference will be the chief executive of the UAE state-owned […]

Christianity

Juan Cole: Infidel or Pagan? Understanding Kufr (كفر) in the Qur’an | Muhammad the Prophet of Peace

Juan Cole

Gabriel Said Reynolds of Notre Dame writes: “In this video I interview Professor Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. We discuss the historicity of Muhammad’s raids as well as the picture of the messenger that is obtained when one focuses on the Qur’an alone. The bulk […]

Colonialism

Juan Cole on Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” (StayTunedNBC)

Juan Cole

Here is the interview Alex Greaney of StayTunedNBC did with Juan Cole about the Egypt scenes in Ridley Scott’s film, “Napoleon.” StayTunedNBC: “Juan Cole on Ridley Scott’s depiction of Napoleon in Egypt” I wrote a book about Bonaparte in Egypt for those of you who want to know more about the first major Western colonial […]

Colonialism

That Time when Napoleon Bonaparte’s Army in Palestine Burned Crops, Pounded Houses with Artillery, and Cut off Water to Cities

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On 24 June 1799 General Louis-Alexandre Berthier wrote a dispatch from Ottoman Palestine back to the French Ministry of War (people were more honest back then) about the French retreat from their failed attempt to take Ottoman Palestine. Since the army ravaged the Palestinian countryside with retaliatory attacks, given their […]

Bahrain

What does the Gaza Conflict Mean for the UAE, the Abraham Accords and Saudi Normalization?

Hamdullah Baycar

Exeter, UK (Special to Informed Comment; Featured) – When the United Arab Emirates (UAE), along with several Arab states such as Bahrain and Morocco, normalized their relationship with Israel, this was believed to create leverage against Israel. Moreover, the UAE claimed this was their attempt to salvage a two-state solution. Indeed, when the UAE signed […]

Arab World

The Gaza Conflict Opens up New Opportunities for China in the Middle East, Global South

The Conversation

Shaun Narine, St. Thomas University (Canada) | – (The Conversation) – The western world’s support for Israel as it attacks Gaza has provoked fury across the Arab world and much of the Global South. This situation undermines the West’s international standing and offers opportunities for China to enhance its regional and global diplomatic influence. Whether […]

Iraq

Victims of War are more than just a Statistic

Ibrahim Al-Marashi

By Ibrahim Al-Marashi | ( San Francisco Chronicle ) – If someone had asked the students at my Monterey high school which one of us would be the first to go to Iraq, everyone would have probably said me. After all, my parents were the ones who emigrated from Iraq in the 1970s to escape […]

Barack Obama

Juan Cole: The Rise and Fall of Oil and the US Invasion of Iraq

Juan Cole

Here is the closing plenary panel of a conference held in mid-September by the Qatar branch of Georgetown University on “The Invasion of Iraq: Regional Reflections.” Juan Cole is the first speaker in the video below, on the changing relationship of the United States to Iraq and to energy markets in the Bush, Obama, Trump […]