Latest Articles
-
‘Trump-ed’ Democratic Ideals in Arab–US Relations: ‘Democracy Promotion in Reverse’?
This report discusses the rise of transactionalism in the Gulf states’ relations with the US, which is set not only to sideline democratic principles, norms, and institutions within Gulf polities, but also within the wider Arab region.
·
-
Democratic Resilience in the United States: Containing Trump’s Threat to Democracy?
This report provides a comparative perspective on two crucial questions. First, what are the possibilities that the United States might devolve into what political scientists have called a ‘competitive authoritarian regime’—one in which the façade of democratic institutions obscures the reality of political power that cannot be held to account by either constitutional checks-and-balances or…
·
-
An Arab ‘MAGA’ Reset
US president Donald Trump’s visit to three of the world’s richest states in the Gulf calls for reflection on the prospects of an Arab MAGA (Make the Arab world Great Again). The idea is not to transform the Arab world in a Trumpian image. That is, not a MAGA modelled on spurious ideological discourses about the ‘other’…
·
-
This is Not Who We Are: The United States in Retreat
Of the myriad devastating impacts resulting from the chaotic behavior of the current Administration, the effort to disparage, dismantle and defund the institutions of America’s international leadership and engagement is most strikingly at odds with America’s fundamental values…
·
-
Amerika: MAGA, China, Imperial Decline, Democracy
This report examines the current rivalries between the USA and China—two entangled but differently structured empires—which are triggering mental confusions, public anxieties and political misunderstandings and fears. Getting the measure of these world-shaping dynamics should be a priority for every thinking person, but the task is hampered by much bluff and bluster, propaganda and disinformation…
·
