Last week, Al Majalla began publishing articles online from the Cover Story of the March edition of our monthly magazine.

The cover story, titled "The US-China rivalry for Saudi Arabia," drew readers in with an analysis of Saudi Arabia's evolving foreign policies by Hesham AlGhannam. On her part, Chinese writer Becky Shen detailed her country’s successful "Belt and Road" Initiative and what Saudi Arabia can learn from the successful project.

Highlighting Japan’s view, Satoshi Ikeuchi detailed his country’s growing assertiveness amid China’s growing global dominance, while Con Coughlin emphasised that China will not take lightly the new defence alliance between Australia, the UK, and the US, known as the Aukus pact, in his weekly Oped titled: “Western nations team up in the face of Chinese dominance.”

On his part, former US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, explained how Washington is concerned but not alarmed over growing cooperation between Saudi Arabia and China. And finally, giving Russia’s view, Anton Mardasov, explains how the Ukraine war has seemingly forced Moscow into an awkward alliance with Beijing.

In other political coverage, Khaled Hamadeh provides an in-depth summary of the Middle East’s many maritime routes, uncovering the “invisible war” unfolding in these key waterways — particularly in the Horn of Africa.

Also featured in our politics section, Nikolaos Van Dam, wrote on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the Syrian war,  posing the question: "Was the Syrian Revolution sectarian?" 

Al Majalla also published a selection of culture-focused articles, including Mohammed Rouda’s piece: "World War I film wins Oscar in nod to Ukraine war.” Meanwhile, Shadi Alaa Aldin penned a piece titled: "Claiming and reclaiming Mahmoud Darwish” which highlighted the controversy over Lebanese singer Carole Samaha’s latest pop song which is claimed to have incorporated some of the late Palestinian poet’s prose.

Switching to business and economy news, Khaled Kassar penned an Oped extracting valuable lessons from the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, saying that the incident — which was the most significant global event this week — should  serve as a stark warning to the US Federal Reserve. 

"Al Majalla"