The rare earths powering industries and fuelling conflicts

From Africa to the Arctic, certain metals and minerals are so highly sought after for today's strategic industries that countries will go to war over them. What are they? Al Majalla digs deeper.

Abdulfattah Khattab

Like a Bull in the Iraqi Oil Market

[caption id="attachment_55244690" align="alignnone" width="620"] Gazprom security men stand guard in front of a drilling platform at an oilfield near the Iraqi city of Badra, south of Baghdad, on…

Andrés Cala

Putting Down the Wrong Kind of Roots

[caption id="attachment_55244622" align="alignnone" width="594"] Apartment blocks line the edge of a field in the fertile Egyptian Delta region of Al-Menofeya. (Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)[…

Rawan Ezzat

Shifting Sands under Qatari Gas

[caption id="attachment_55244083" align="alignnone" width="620"] View of Qatar Petroleum (QP), a state-owned corporation established in 1974 and responsible for all phases of the oil and gas industry…

Keily Miller

Banking On Beirut

[caption id="attachment_55243466" align="alignnone" width="620"] A Lebanese bank employee counts money at a bank in Beirut on July 21, 2009. JOSEPH BARRAK/AFP/Getty Images[/caption] Bankers are not…

Jenna Marangoni

Morocco and its Sun

[caption id="attachment_55243306" align="alignnone" width="620"] The sun sets behind the Moroccan flag during Throne Day Celebrations on July 30, 2006 in Rabat, Morocco. CHRIS JACKSON/Getty Images[…

Younes Hassar

Driving their own Destiny

[caption id="attachment_55243065" align="alignnone" width="620"] cars on the bridge, connecting the northern and the southern parts of Tunis, in La Goulette near Tunis. FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images[…

Mehrunisa Qayyum

As Venezuela, so Iran?

[caption id="attachment_55243022" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (C) waves alongside Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Elias Jaua (C-R) outside of the…

Andrés Cala

Borrowed Success

[caption id="attachment_55242833" align="alignnone" width="620"] Egyptian shopkeepers stand in a passageway in the souk of Khan Al-Khalili in Cairo, Egypt. (ED GILES/Getty Images)[/caption] The…

Stephen Glain

A Paltry Inheritance

[caption id="attachment_55242269" align="aligncenter" width="620"] People seen shopping outside Tehran's main bazaar on June 2, 2013 in Tehran, Iran. (Photo by Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)[/caption…

Ahmad Seyf

One Eye on the Exit

[caption id="attachment_55241856" align="aligncenter" width="620"] An Egyptian man hold a cross during a memorial march for Christians who were killed during clashes with Muslims in April, in Cairo,…

Stephen Glain