Reading Time: 3 minutes The liberation of Mosul is going to be the bloodiest, most bitterly-fought urban campaign since Stalingrad
Author: Joseph Micallef
Methane hydrates: economic bonanza or environmental catastrophe?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Trapped in oceans and permafrost, this hydrocarbon carries great potential – but its untimely release could also bring immeasurable harm
On burkinis, burkas and Halloween masks
Reading Time: 3 minutes While the burkini may offend the fashion sensibilities of some French mayors, it doesn’t pose a threat to public safety
Turkey incursion upends Syrian battlefield
Reading Time: 3 minutes The objective is to prevent the seizure of the portion of Aleppo province by U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces
Putin’s fumbling of Ukraine could cost him his job
Reading Time: 4 minutes Russia’s elite might oust Putin over the Ukrainian debacle in an attempt to “normalize” relations with Ukraine, Europe and the United States
Turkey’s flirtation with Russia could become a full-blown romance
Reading Time: 4 minutes Ankara’s rapprochement with Moscow may yet prove to be the beginning of an entirely new direction in Turkey’s foreign policy
Turkey and Egypt: a tale of two coups
Reading Time: 3 minutes The coups may have ended differently, but both are consequential for Middle East stability
Reining in Iran: Middle East politics at a crossroads
Reading Time: 3 minutes If the arc of Iran’s influence grows, on the strength of new nuclear capacity, the whole dynamic in the region will change
Islamic State is a big business machine
Reading Time: 3 minutes Despite vast revenue sources – from taxes to extortion to the sale of antiquities to ramsom – the terrorist group faces a cash crunch
Nice attack symptomatic of an evolving Islamic State
Reading Time: 4 minutes With the tide turning against it on the battlefield, ISIS is returning to a campaign of indiscriminate urban violence