We were sitting in a café watching one of the Arab satellite TV channels when one person referred sarcastically to an analyst being interviewed on a talk show. "These experts make fortunes without putting in much effort," he said. My attempts to (...)
The prospect of peace is being tested in Libya against a backdrop of a developing regional rapprochement between Egypt and Turkey. Syria is witnessing a stalemate, with most of the country now back in the hands of the regime led by Syrian President (...)
There are many Hollywood horror movies that leave Arab viewers in a state of shock due to the sadism of murderers who torture their victims or take apparent pleasure in their pain.
Such films are sometimes grounded in Western philosophies that (...)
Just as passing events can cause major and unexpected transformations in how people view themselves and impact on their behaviour, much the same thing can happen to societies as a whole but on a different scale.
The Covid-19 pandemic, which has (...)
One of the lessons learned thus far from the Covid-19 pandemic is how health issues and the political stability of different countries are interrelated. Not only has the pandemic wreaked havoc on the world's economy, but the very fact that some of (...)
Whereas Democratic Party supporters in the US criticise US President Donald Trump for using a “rhetoric of fear” when he tells voters that he is the only one protecting the American Dream against the threat of chaos, they themselves also tend to use (...)
Corruption, protests against the results of the legislative elections in March, the stalled 2015 peace agreement with the Azawadi Liberation Movement in the north, the mounting terrorist threat, tribal disputes and economic straits are said to be (...)
The ceasefire declaration statements issued by the Tripoli based Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Tobruk based House of Representatives have once again raised hopes for a negotiated political settlement to the longstanding Libyan (...)
The repercussions of the announced UAE-Israeli peace agreement will ricochet throughout all the current crises in the Middle East, not least the Libyan conflict. The impacts, moreover, could be quite pronounced given the possibility that (...)
In his novel Blindness, Portuguese author José Saramago presents the violence that takes place in a city that has lost its humanity during an epidemic.
The only woman unaffected by the disease, which causes blindness, accompanies her physician (...)
Unmistakable marks of sadness feature on the face of William, a vegetable vendor in Shubra, on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan. Egyptians had hardly celebrated the advent of the holy month when a terror attack occurred on its eve, killing (...)
The rise of armed jihadist groups such as Islamic State (IS), Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and others in regions of conflict has created growing challenges for global humanitarian aid efforts to deliver relief assistance to residents of these areas. The (...)
Smuggling is a fact of life — it is the soft underbelly of legal trade, filling in the gaps, meeting pent-up demand and exposing the cracks in the system. It is usually kept in check by governments concerned for their own tax revenue and their (...)
Egyptian-Algerian coordination over the Libyan crisis is a fundamental regional axis in the fight against cross-border threats caused by the political and security instability in Libya.
There are mounting fears that Libya will fragment as a country. (...)
The jihadists have mastered the art of filling a vacuum. Whenever friction or turmoil weakens the fabric of a state, they step in. And when chased away, they wait on the borders, regrouping until the time is right to enter once more.
The remoteness (...)
Twenty years ago or so, one million Rwandan refugees fleeing the genocide in their country fled into the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Their plight marked a turning point for humanitarian relief, the point at which (...)
The turmoil in Libya since the fall of the Gaddafi regime has posed a mounting threat to Egyptian national security in the fullest sense of the term, as defined by the need to protect the state's existence and vital interests from all potential and (...)
“Operation Dignity”, the military campaign led by forces under the command of retired General Khalifa Haftar against Islamist militia groups in Benghazi, has brought the Libyan conflict to a new crossroads. That it has drawn the support of some (...)