The tri-emirate DSA conurbation must ensure advanced close coordination in issues including fire prevention and fire fighting, pollution monitoring, road and vehicle safety, waste management, mass transit and road planning. More than anywhere else in the UAE, the challenges that the DSA face are common. The solutions must therefore also be common. Read more »
Support reform or get out of the way
Few countries so small resonate so widely as Bahrain does today. The island kingdom has become a center of attention for all the wrong reasons. Bahrain was for decades the beacon of freedom and social activism that the rest of us in the Gulf looked up to. Today the island is almost unrecognizable. But there is hope yet. Read more »
Political Islamists arouse suspicion in the UAE
The post-Arab Spring political scene has exposed the frailty of the ‘marriage of convenience’ between free-thinkers and conservatives. Liberals, the pioneers of the revolutions, have seen their influence dwindle due to their lack of organisation, with parties like the Muslim Brotherhood filling the vacuum. But swayed by electoral success, Islamists are alienating the people by going after plum political posts and seeking to impose curbs on personal freedom. Read more »
The Brotherhood goes to Saudi
Unlikely circumstances came together in the past few days to mend ties between Saudi Arabia and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Since the fall of Hosni Mubarak and the rise of the Brotherhood in Egypt, relations between the two states stagnated before spiraling following the arrest in Saudi Arabia of an Egyptian human rights lawyer, Ahmed al-Gizawy. Read more »
Saudi-Egyptian breakdown: What’s at stake?
The sooner Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states realize that the “new Egypt” is here to stay and that the Mubarak days are long gone — and adjust their policies accordingly — the sooner they will be able to rebuild their bonds, this time not with the regime, but with the people, whose votes will decide the regime in place. Read more »
The rise of Arab republics?
The Arab world has lately been experiencing monumental changes including the realignment of political alliances, but one possible long-term outcome of the Arab uprisings may be a game of musical chairs involving the Arab monarchies, republics and Western powers. By the end of the next decade it is not unreasonable to predict a stronger relationship between certain Arab republics and the West than that which existed between Arab monarchies and the West over the past few decades. Read more »