Afro-Middle East Centre - Afro-Middle East Centre

by Azzam Tamimi For a change, all concerned parties seem eager to see Palestinian reconciliation succeed. Each player has its own reasons, of course. Yet, it would not have been p...

21 September 2017

Bahrain’s call to normalise ties with Israel

on Bahrain

By Afro-Middle East Centre Recent statements by Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa criticising the Arab boycott of Israel and advocating Bahraini visits to Tel Aviv, point to...

20 September 2017

Seeking a slice of the pie: Israel’s double-edged campaign in…

on Syria

By Afro-Middle East Centre After seven years of the raging Syrian civil war, Israel has emerged from the shadows to launch a campaign in Syria, continuing its battle with Hizbulla...

‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’: Hamas brokers…
By Afro-Middle East Centre The threat of the collapse of Gaza Strip as the siege on the territory and the consequent humanitari…
The Gaza battle to defeat Palestinian resistance
By Ramzy Baroud Judging by its size, the Gaza Strip may look too small to matter in the ongoing regional intrigues involving Isra…

The siege of Qatar, rebellious black sheep of the GCC
By Zeenat Adam The May 2017 Riyadh Summit marked the first international tour of the new US president, Donald Trump. Three meetin…
Netanyahu tries charming West African states
By Afro-Middle East Centre In his speech at the fifty-first ECOWAS heads of state summit in Monrovia, Liberia on 4 June, Israeli …

13 November 2017

Saudi-Israeli common course on Lebanon

on Lebanon

By Na'eem Jeenah The dramatic news out of Saudi Arabia over the past week, including stories of arrests of members of the royal family, assassinations, purges and torture are not ...

09 November 2017

Saudi Arabia: The king is (not) dead; Long live the…

on Saudi Arabia

In an extremely busy twenty-four hours in Saudi Arabia this past weekend, a series of moves by the palace sought to consolidate the power of the crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman –...

30 October 2017

Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum: Barzani’s political (mis)calculation?

on Iraq

The decision by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq to hold a referendum on independence has proven to be a terrible miscalculation for the its president, Masoud Barzani...

05 October 2017

Why Palestinian reconciliation is likely finally to succeed

by Azzam Tamimi For a change, all concerned parties seem eager to see Palestinian reconciliation succeed. Each player has its own reasons, of course. Yet, it would not have been p...

21 September 2017

Bahrain’s call to normalise ties with Israel

on Bahrain

By Afro-Middle East Centre Recent statements by Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa criticising the Arab boycott of Israel and advocating Bahraini visits to Tel Aviv, point to...

20 September 2017

Seeking a slice of the pie: Israel’s double-edged campaign in…

on Syria

By Afro-Middle East Centre After seven years of the raging Syrian civil war, Israel has emerged from the shadows to launch a campaign in Syria, continuing its battle with Hizbulla...

Saudi-Israeli common course on Lebanon

on Lebanon

By Na'eem Jeenah The dramatic news out of Saudi Arabia over the past week, including stories of arrests of members of the royal family, assassinations, purges and torture are not ...

05 October 2017

Why Palestinian reconciliation is likely finally to succeed

by Azzam Tamimi For a change, all concerned parties seem eager to see Palestinian reconciliation succeed. Each player has its own reasons, of course. Yet, it would not have been p...

20 September 2017

Seeking a slice of the pie: Israel’s double-edged campaign in…

on Syria

By Afro-Middle East Centre After seven years of the raging Syrian civil war, Israel has emerged from the shadows to launch a campaign in Syria, continuing its battle with Hizbulla...

28 July 2017

‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’: Hamas brokers…

By Afro-Middle East Centre The threat of the collapse of Gaza Strip as the siege on the territory and the consequent humanitarian crisis worsens resulted in the Hamas leadership...

25 July 2017

The Gaza battle to defeat Palestinian resistance

on Palestine-Israel

By Ramzy Baroud Judging by its size, the Gaza Strip may look too small to matter in the ongoing regional intrigues involving Israel, the United States, Turkey, Egypt and the Gulf ...

11 June 2017

Netanyahu tries charming West African states

on Israel

By Afro-Middle East Centre In his speech at the fifty-first ECOWAS heads of state summit in Monrovia, Liberia on 4 June, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu claimed Africa a...

Palestinian Authority security forces: Whose security?
By Alaa Tartir To speak of Israeli-Palestinian ‘cooperation’…is to use no less than a misnomer. This is not, however, simply beca…
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Restating existing positions; nothing dramatic about new Hamas ‘charter’
Rather than signalling any major, dramatic or radical change in direction, the new ‘charter’ (officially called ‘A Document of Gen…
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Astana: Russia, Turkey and Iran show a united front on…
By Afro-Middle East Centre Talks between the Syrian regime and opposition forces, held in Kazakhstan’s capital from 23 to 24 …
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Tricontinental solidarity and Palestine today
By Maren Mantovani By defending their national rights the Palestinian people have defended the rights of all revolutionaries in t…
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09 November 2017

Saudi Arabia: The king is (not) dead; Long live the…

on Saudi Arabia

In an extremely busy twenty-four hours in Saudi Arabia this past weekend, a series of moves by the palace sought to consolidate the power of the crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman –...

30 October 2017

Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum: Barzani’s political (mis)calculation?

on Iraq

The decision by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq to hold a referendum on independence has proven to be a terrible miscalculation for the its president, Masoud Barzani...

21 September 2017

Bahrain’s call to normalise ties with Israel

on Bahrain

By Afro-Middle East Centre Recent statements by Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa criticising the Arab boycott of Israel and advocating Bahraini visits to Tel Aviv, point to...

20 June 2017

The siege of Qatar, rebellious black sheep of the GCC

on Qatar

By Zeenat Adam The May 2017 Riyadh Summit marked the first international tour of the new US president, Donald Trump. Three meetings in Riyadh – a bilateral with Saudi Arabia (KSA)...

07 June 2017

Will Qatar-Saudi Arabia-UAE diplomatic crisis reconfigure Gulf politics?

on Qatar

The 5 June decision by Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and their allies and proxies – Egypt, Bahrain, the Maldives, Mauritania and rival governments in Libya...

26 May 2017

Rouhani’s electoral victory, and empowering of the Iranian presidency

on Iran

Hassan Rouhani’s landslide victory in the Iranian presidential election on Friday, 17 May heralds a continuation on the country’s path towards global re-engagement, both on a popul...

Unofficial martial law in Bahrain
By Afro-Middle East Cantre On 5 March, the upper house of the Bahraini parliament passed a constitutional amendment which, c…
Saudi foreign policy under Salman: same goal, different threat perceptions
By Ebrahim Deen The rise of the Islamic State Group (IS) and resurgence of Iran is now perceived as posing a more acute threat to…

Mosul: the beginning of the end for the Islamic State?
By Afro-Middle East Centre The 16 October declaration by Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi of the beginning of the offensive t…
Yemen: Putting humpty dumpty together again
By Afro-Middle East Centre Although the United Arab Emirates recently announced that its troops would no longer be involved in Ye…

19 May 2017

Libya's unending civil war: When weapons trump politics

on Libya

By Afro-Middle East Centre Almost three years have elapsed since the reconvening of Libya’s General National Congress (GNC) in July 2014 and subsequent division of the country int...

09 February 2017

Statehood in the era of securitisation: Morocco’s accession to the…

on Morocco

By Afro-Middle East Centre In the culmination of an extended process, Morocco was admitted to the African Union on 30 January 2017. This process saw the king undertake numero...

30 January 2017

Yahya Jammeh’s exile and the ICC conundrum

on Western Sahara

By Afro-Middle East Centre The stepping down, under duress, of long-term Gambian president Yahya Jammeh clearly illustrates the impact of credible collective security. However, fo...

17 November 2016

The Libyan tragedy: Power in the contemporary geopolitical setting

on Libya

By Thabo Mbeki Analysing two recent key reports issued in the UK regarding the 2011 NATO assault on Libya, former president, Thabo Mbeki, argues that regime chan...

27 October 2016

Moroccan Elections: Where process trumps result

on Morocco

By Afro-Middle East Centre The results of the recent, 7 October, Moroccan parliamentary election means little in terms of the exercise of actual political power, but is indicative...

25 July 2016

Expanding UN mandate in South Sudan: Militarising politics?

on Sudan

By Afro-Middle East Centre The recent African Union decision adding a more ‘robust’ peace enforcement component to the current 12 000 strong UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS...

Tunisian Ennahda’s ‘second founding’
By Larbi Sadiki Ennahda’s Tenth Congress in May 2016 was a leap of faith into re-endorsing the movement’s historical leadership a…
Upgrading Morocco-SA ties: good for both, but no difference for…
By Afro-Middle East Centre The February 2016 announcement by Moroccan King Mohammed VI that the kingdom intended to upgrade diplo…

Passionate supporters, now Egypt’s new ‘dissidents’
By Afro-Middle East Centre Protests by Egypt’s main journalist syndicate and Egyptians previously loyal to the military regime po…
Islands for aid: A deal between Cairo, Riyadh, Tel Aviv…
By Afro-Middle East Centre The recent handing over of two islands – Tiran and Sanafir – to Saudi Arabia by the Egyptian governmen…

06 April 2017

Ensuring Somalia remains in conflict: Trump’s expanded ‘war on terror’

on Somalia

By Afro-Middle East Centre The 29 March decision by the administration of US president Donald Trump declaring Somalia an ‘area of active hostility’ will likely ensure an escalatio...

10 October 2016

South Sudan: Beyond the logjam of UNSC Resolution 2304

on South Sudan

By Majak D’Agoôt and Remember Miamingi No country is entirely self-contained or lacking in interdependencies. These interlocking interests form the critical part of any country’s ...

28 April 2015

Nigeria’s elections and future challenges

By Afro-Middle East Centre The election of General Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s president will see a renewed focus by the government on domestic challenges posed by endemic...

26 September 2013

Kenyan hostage crisis: The desperation of al-Shabab

By Afro-Middle East Centre The hostage drama at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi over the past week has raised a number of questions about the Somali organisation al-Shabab. After the...

23 January 2013

French military intervention will add to Mali’s problems

By Afro-Middle east Centre The north of Africa was plunged into yet another international conflict with France’s invasion of Mali on Friday, 11 January. Without im...

26 October 2012

The effects of the ‘War on Terror’ on states’ foreign…

By Afro-Middle East Centre Recent statements that ‘there is no alternative….it’s going to take military force’, made by Jack Christofides, a senior offici...

Will Al-Shabab recover from a major defeat?
By Osman Abdi Mohamed In recent months Al-Shabab has been suffering successive losses at the hands of Somali government forces fi…
The core of the Somali crisis, and the challenges of…
Unlike the Lebanese crisis, or that of Kosovo, the Somali crisis is characterised by ongoing self-igniting and self-sustaining vio…

Thinking differently in an attempt to break the Somali impasse
By Afro-Middle East Centre On the 22 July 2010, an African Union Summit in Kampala, Uganda, resolved to increase the number of tr…
Somalia's Divided Islamists
By International Crisis Group Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) must engage dissidents among the country's insurgen…

28 August 2015

Does Pakistan’s refusal to join Saudi Arabia in Yemen indicate…

on Pakistan

By Afro-Middle East Centre Allegedly, the current Saudi-led onslaught on Yemen has already caused destruction that resembles the destruction wrought in Syria over the la...

31 March 2012

The feasibility of a continued United States presence in Afghanistan

By Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn Recent events in Afghanistan have fuelled speculation over the ability of international forces to continue their presence in the coun...

28 February 2012

Dangerous uncertainty in Pakistan

By Junaid S. Ahmed With relations between Pakistan's civilian government and military incredibly tense, speculation is rife in the Pakistani and international media of a looming m...

30 May 2011

Pakistan-USA relations in the post-Usama era

By Junaid S. Ahmad The assassination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan by US Special Forces was supposed to have been a landmark triumph that would bring peace and stability to the r...

13 December 2010

Kashmir and Obama's Indian appeasement

By Mohammad Abdullah Gul Obama's recent jive with school children in Delhi symbolises the nature of the new relationship that is emerging between India and the United States of Am...

13 September 2010

Pakistan’s floods: Pressing problems and potential risks

By Najam Abbas Pakistan's recent floods have left eight million people dependent on aid for their survival, and washed away huge swathes of the rich farmland on which the country...

Wikileaks, Afghanistan, and Pakistan
By Mohammed Abdullah Gul On 25 July 2010, the New York Timescarried an explosive story by Mark Mazzetti, Jane Perlez, Eric …
India walks a tightrope in its relations with Israel, Arab…
By Ramananda Sengupta 'We do have a defence relationship with India, which is no secret. On the other hand, what is a secret is w…

Afghanistan: terrain for India-Pakistan proxy war
By Ramananda Sengupta The savage attack on Kabul hotels housing Indian workers on 26th February 2010 - the fourth major attack on…
Obama's Strategy in Afghanistan: The Afghanisation of the War
By AlJazeera Centre for Studies Early in December 2009, and after lengthy consultations, United States president Barack Obama ann…

26 April 2017

IS reorganising to face new challenges

Reports in January 2017 that the leader of the Islamic State group (IS), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been killed, reports that he had been captured by Russian troops in Syria, and th...

07 March 2017

IS in Africa: Containment and fragmentation

By Afro-Middle East Centre With the Islamic State group (IS) losing territory in Syria and Iraq, many believe that the group will use the territory it controls in Africa as a fall...

14 May 2016

The Paradox of Survival and Expansion: How the Islamic State…

Omar Ashour This paper examines the reasons for the military steadfastness of the Islamic State group (IS) in the face of local and international forces that are larger in numbers...

19 December 2015

ISIS in Africa: Reality far different from IS propaganda

By Afro-Middle East Centre The revelation that the alleged mastermind of the 13 November Paris attacks claimed by the Islamic State group (IS) was of Moroccan descent, the tur...

20 July 2015

Remaining and expanding: Measuring the Islamic State group’s success in…

By Afro-Middle East Centre Since its declaration of a ‘caliphate’ on 29 June 2014, the Islamic State group (IS), the brutal successor to al-Qa'ida, has gone from stren...

31 January 2012

The rise of 'Ikhwanophobia': Fear of the Muslim Brotherhood

By Dr. Mohsen Saleh Introduction Fear of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwanal-Muslimoon), the leading Islamist movement, has gained unprecedented international prominence since the b...

Dialogue with the Taliban: Negotiation or inducement?
By AlJazeera Centre for Studies The London Conference, held at the end of January 2010 in recognition of, and support for, Afgh…
Al-Qa'ida Hot Spots
By AlJazeera Centre for Studies At the end of the phase known as the "Afghan Jihad", most Arabs and Muslims who participated in t…

Al-Qaeda, Jihad and the Democratization of Islamic Authority
by Faisal Devji On the fifth anniversary of 9/11 a jihadist website posted a long interview with Osama bin Laden's lieutenant, A…
Abstract : ‘Jihad’ as a form of struggle in the…
Abstract for paper presented by Na'eem Jeenah, Executive Director of the Afro-Middle East Centre, at the conference on "Rethinking…

21 November 2015

The Paris attacks: Aftermath and the Islamic State group’s future

By Afro-Middle East Centre The terror unleashed on Paris streets on 13 November reverberated throughout the world. From the G20 summit in Antalya to social media debates about how...

28 May 2010

Al-Qaeda in the New National Security Strategy

By Mark Lynch The Obama administration's new National Security Strategy has been released today. It goes a long way towards providing a coherent framework for American foreign pol...

16 February 2010

Pakistan’s attitude towards Obama’s plan to negotiate with the Taliban

By Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to negotiate with the Taliban in Afghanistan has generally been welcomed in Pakistan. It is being seen as a vindication...

07 February 2010

Mission Absolute: American hegemony in space

By Sourav Roy Come April 2010, officials from the sleepy Polish municipality of Morag will be gearing up for perhaps their most critical assignment in the new decade. Their job wi...

The Battle for Justice in Palestine

January 19, 2014

Buy your copy now Winner of the 2014 Palestine Book Award Efforts to achieve a “two-state solution” have fin...

Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East

January 19, 2014

Buy your copy now While the outcomes of the tumultuous uprisings that continue to transfix the Arab world rem...

Tomorrow's Battlefield: US Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa

January 19, 2014

Buy your copy now You won’t see segments about it on the nightly news or read about it on the front page of A...

AMEC insights Volume 1 - 2014

January 19, 2014

Buy your copy now AMEC insights 2014 brings together the series of AMEC briefs and AMEC insights published by...

News from Middle East and North Africa

Media Gallery

31 January 2017

What Trump's orders mean for Middle Eastern relations

President Donald Trump's first few days in office have sparked global shock and outrage following the signing of several executive orders; the one that sparked the most outcries at the weekend was the...

12 January 2017

Na'eem Jeenah on Syria

South African aid organisations have been lauded for their humanitarian efforts in the Syrian conflict. The conflict began with the Arab spring in 2011 and now has degraded into a civil war whereby th...

20 September 2016

An indepth look into the Syrian conflict: Na'eem…

The United Nations has suspended all aid convoys in Syria after its lorries were attacked by warplanes near Aleppo on Monday.The attack came a few hours after the Syrian army declared an end to a week...

05 July 2016

Na'eem Jeenah on the Saudi blasts

There have been three suicide attacks in 24 hours in Saudi Arabia. Four security staff were killed when an attacker blew himself up at a parking lot outside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. Five other ...