Documents & Memoirs | Al Majalla

Could the US-Iran war spark World War III?

The current conflict is unlikely to go global for now, but the speed at which it has spread regionally is alarming. A look at history shows the geopolitical factors that led to world wars.

Christopher Phillips 17 March 2026

US Navy sailors send signals to an E-2D Hawkeye aircraft, 124th Airborne Command and Control Squadron, as it walks on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, on 28 February 2026.

Reuters

President Nixon meets with Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-Tung in Peking, during his 1972 visit to China.

Getty Images

51 years after Nixon’s groundbreaking visit, China-US relations at an all-time low

The Chinese spy balloon incident, as well as Beijing's cosy relationship with Moscow, have soured already tense relations

Sami Moubayed 01 March 2023

The architects of the 1913 coup were officers from the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP)

Jamie Wignall

The coup that brought down the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman coups inspired similar coups against leaders in Iran, Iraq and Syria

Sami Moubayed 28 February 2023

Members of Lebanon's movement Hezbollah on March 1, 2016, in the southern town of Kfour in the Nabatiyeh district, during the funeral of a Hezbollah fighter, who was killed while fighting a longside Syrian government forces in Syria

Getty Images

Damascus Documents reveal story behind creation of Hezbollah

Al Majalla obtains Damascus Documents which reveal how Iran founded Hezbollah in Lebanon in the 1980s

Ibrahim Hamidi 26 February 2023

British wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, left, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, center, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin sit in the grounds of the Livadia Palace, Yalta.

Getty Images

There is hope now for Ukraine in how Yalta helped end World War II

Today’s world needs many things. One of them may well be another Yalta conference. The resort city on the south coast of the Crimea is famous for helping end World War II. It hosted an…

Sami Moubayed 22 February 2023

A member of the Lebanese security forces stands guard in front of a billboard bearing a portrait of slain former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri to mark his assassination on February 14, 2005.

AFP

The legacy of Rafik Hariri and the collapse of the Lebanese state

Although it has been 18 years since Hariri's brutal assassination, the pain of his loss is being felt now more than ever

Mohamed abi Samra 16 February 2023

In a tale of generals and presidents, Al Majalla illustrates how Lebanese politics overlapped with its army.

Andrei Cojocaru

When generals become presidents: A history of Lebanese military leaders

In a tale of generals and presidents, Al Majalla illustrates how Lebanese politics overlapped with its army

Sami Moubayed 03 February 2023

“Abu Nidal, Abu Shmidal… we will screw the PLO”

During the 17th and 18th century, European philosophers and political scientists used the ancient Latin term casus belli to define a case for waging war. Modern international law recognises three…

Sami Moubayed 26 January 2023

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Netanyahu continues to defy calls from Washington to pump the brakes on Israel's offensive in Lebanon, something Iran has linked to a future peace deal

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Why is Iran targeting Kuwait and Bahrain?

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While it could be tied to military calculations related to the current US-Iran war, it also reflects a deeper struggle between two opposing regional visions

Al Majalla - London