geopolitics | Al Majalla

UN special representative Volker Perthes addresses the media in Khartoum on 10 January 2022 to announce that the United Nations will launch talks to help Sudan. A year later, the country descended into civil war.

Volker Perthes: fragmentation and stalemate awaits Sudan

In a wide-ranging interview, the German scholar and former UN envoy offers a sobering assessment of the conflict's trajectory.

Ibrahim Hamidi 12 July 2025

An unprecedented GCC-Central Asia summit last month in Jeddah was the first in three decades and a sign that Gulf states are taking notice of the region's strategic significance.

SPA

Jeddah summit signals growing GCC interest in Central Asia

A GCC-Central Asia summit last month was the first in three decades and a sign that Gulf states are taking notice of the region's strategic significance

Vicken Cheterian 05 August 2023

Ankara has balanced its membership of Nato with a need to maintain relations with Russia, since clearly calling out the war in the early days. It has worked so far, but will have to keep at it

Rob Carter

A look at Turkey's geopolitics through the lens of the war in Ukraine

Ankara has balanced its membership of Nato with a need to maintain relations with Russia, since clearly calling out the war in the early days. It has worked so far, but will have to keep at it.

Mitat Çelikpala 08 July 2023

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China's silk road to the Middle East runs through Riyadh

China says its engagement in the Middle East is strictly economic and has no intention of filling political vacuums left by the West. However, Bejing's assurances haven't eased their worries.

Mohamed Sharki 18 June 2023

Is Increasing Presence of China Positive?

It is “the biggest geopolitics test of the 21st century”, as Biden called it. This relationship of conflict and mistrust between America and China has significant implications for the world and…

Saif Al Abri 20 November 2021

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Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (C) reviews a military honour guard with Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) during a welcoming ceremony in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on January 31, 2019.

GREG BAKER / AFP

Politics

Pivot to China? Gulf states mull options after Doha strike

12 September 2025

Israel's attack in Qatar erodes Gulf states' trust in the US and serves as a stark reminder that they cannot depend on American security guarantees

Xiaotong Yang

A Hezbollah flag is placed in front of the shrine of Shamoun al-Safa, built within a castle in the village of Shamaa in southern Lebanon's Tyre governorate, on January 31, 2025, that was heavily damaged by Israeli bombing.

Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP

Business & Economy

Trump Economic Zone plan raises eyebrows in Lebanon

11 September 2025

Many Lebanese see the project as a demographic one with economic dressings aimed at expelling the country's southern population from their lands

Souraya Chahine

Al Majalla

Politics

From Idlib to New York: Sharaa’s winding road to the UN

12 September 2025

From the plains of Idlib to the presidential palace in Damascus and now the UN headquarters in Manhattan, Al Majalla traces the Syrian president's journey to get to this historic moment

Ibrahim Hamidi

Opinion

'The Voice of Hind Rajab' shows cries for justice are only getting louder

07 September 2025

A 24-minute standing ovation at the film premiere was more than a symbolic gesture of justice for Israel's murder of little Hind, but a heartfelt cry of real anguish over the ongoing genocide in Gaza

Samer Abou Hawwach