Current Analysis Yemeni Political Dialogue in Riyadh? On March 10, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) invited rival Yemeni factions to hold peace talks in Riyadh, the Saudi Royal Court announced [http://www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=741844&news_type=Top&lang=en ]. Gabriele vom Bruck • 2 min read
Current Analysis Why Isn't the "Swing Producer" Swinging? The price of oil is hovering around $50 per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude, and $60 per barrel of Brent crude, the lowest levels since the global economic downturn [http://www.merip.org/mer/mer252] of 2008-2009. Until the end of February, when they rebounded slightly, oil prices had been dr Karen Pfeifer • 3 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Winter 2014) Midway through Barack Obama’s second term as president, there are two Establishment-approved metanarratives about his foreign policy. One, emanating mainly from the right, but resonating with several liberal internationalists, holds that Obama is unequal to the task of running an empire. The preside Chris Toensing • 4 min read
Current Analysis Life and Death in the Graves of Mecca and Medina On September 1 The Independent published a piece by Andrew Johnson [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudis-risk-new-muslim-division-with-proposal-to-move-mohameds-tomb-9705120.html] detailing plans by the Saudi state to move the final resting place of the Prophet Muhammad from th John M. Willis • 4 min read
Current Analysis Youth of the Gulf, Youth of Palestine I recently came across two accounts of Arab youth that fly in the face of conventional wisdom. One is Kristin Diwan’s issue brief on youth activism [http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/publications/Breaking_Taboos.pdf] in the Arab Gulf states for the Atlantic Council, and the other is a documentar Ted Swedenburg • 6 min read
Current Analysis A Loveless Diplomatic Marriage with No Future Among the would-be therapists of the foreign policy world, the alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia is a textbook case of a “loveless marriage.” Though the values of the two states are at odds, or so the thinking goes, the great democracy and the absolute monarchy are bound together Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 2 min read
Current Analysis Jordan, Morocco and an Expanded GCC A recent report suggests [http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140414/DEFREG04/304140018/] that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) may be looking to expand…again. The report says that, during a March summit, the group of six Arab petro-princedoms extended invitations to both Jordan and Morocco to jo Curtis Ryan • 4 min read
Current Analysis Patronizing Women President Barack Obama capped his visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Saturday by presenting [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/world/middleeast/obama-saudi-arabia.html] the International Women of Courage award to Maha al-Muneef, a pediatrician and executive director of the anti-domestic violenc Sheila Carapico • 2 min read
Current Analysis Stuck (or Not) in a "Special Relationship" What to make of the anxieties surfacing [http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/next-test-for-obama-soothing-the-saudis] in the press in advance of President Barack Obama’s stopover in Saudi Arabia? Is the US-Saudi “special relationship” [http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=10072] really Toby Jones • 3 min read
Current Analysis Romancing the Throne President Barack Obama plans an overnight stay in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on March 28-29 for a rendezvous with King ‘Abdallah. The enduring but always strange bedfellows [http://merip.org/mer/mer220/decline-not-fall-us-hegemony-middle-east] have been quarreling of late over Saudi Arabia’s bellig Sheila Carapico • 4 min read
Current Analysis Saudis' Mass Expulsions Putting Somalis in Danger In 2013, Mohamed, a 22-year old Somali, was making a living washing cars in Saudi Arabia. Late that year, due to increasing government pressure on employers of undocumented workers, he was fired. In December, after several weeks without a job, Mohamed handed himself over to the police. He spent the Laetitia Bader • 9 min read
Current Analysis Saudi Bullying of Qatar Just ahead of a planned state visit [http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-plans-visit-to-saudi-arabia/2014/02/03/bd0463ec-8d03-11e3-95dd-36ff657a4dae_story.html] from President Barack Obama, Saudi Arabia is brandishing the threat [http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/saudi-arabi Sheila Carapico • 2 min read
