Chicago (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – When Israel launched an attack on Doha in September 2025, Arab and Muslim leaders convened an emergency summit. They condemned Israel’s “blatant violation of international law” and praised Qatar’s restraint. However, the joint statement, like so many before it, contained no concrete measures. CNN called it a “wordy […]
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Saudi Arabia
The Gulf Cooperation Council, NATO, and the Collapse of Collective Security
San Marcos, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Within the span of 24 hours in early September, Russia deployed drones into Polish airspace, and Israel launched an aerial attack in Doha, Qatar. Although few commentaries were made connecting the two events, both states deployed airpower to regional collective security organizations, specifically the Gulf Cooperation […]
Riyadh-Islamabad “Islamic NATO” to Check Israel in Shadow of US Decline
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a dramatic signal that the Arab Gulf nations have completely lost faith in the American security umbrella, on Wednesday September 17, Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defense pact with Pakistan. Mirroring the language of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization charter, they announced that an attack on […]
When even Saudi Arabia Jumps into Solar and Wind Power, You know Change is Here
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Saudi Arabia’s massive oil deposits and its 9.53 million barrels per day (bpd) of petroleum production make it an enormous carbon polluter and the foremost enemy of climate science and of electric vehicles. Some 38% of Saudi power plants use petroleum and 62% of electricity generation is done by domestically […]
Saudi Arabia in Modern History
Book Review – David Commins, “Saudi Arabia: A Modern History” (Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 2025). Munich (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The rise of Saudi power in the eighteenth century is not easy to explain. There are few sources, and most of them are highly partisan, remarks David Commins, a professor […]
Saudi Arabia: Executions Surge in bid to Crush Dissent (HRW)
Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Saudi authorities have been carrying out an unprecedented surge in executions in 2025 without apparent due process, Human Rights Watch and the Middle East Democracy Center said today. The June 14 execution of Turki al-Jasser, a journalist known for exposing corruption within the Saudi royal family, raises concerns that the […]
Is Trump’s Axis of the Plutocrats Marginalizing Israel?
( Tomdispatch.com ) – Colorful career criminal Willie Sutton once may (or may not) have been asked why he robbed banks. “Because that is where the money is,” he supposedly replied. A similar principle may explain the first foreign trip of President Donald J. Trump’s second term, which was not to a traditional U.S. ally […]
For all Trump’s new Mideast Contracts, Two Big Deals Elude Him
By Shahram Akbarzadeh, Deakin University (The Conversation) – US President Donald Trump’s visit to Arab states in the Middle East this week generated plenty of multibillion-dollar deals. He said more than US$1 trillion (A$1.5 trillion) worth of deals had been signed with Saudi Arabia alone, though the real total is likely much lower than that. […]
GCC Energy stands as the ‘Superman’ of Global Energy Markets
by Dr Elif Selin Calik The energy sector of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries represents the ‘Superman’ of global energy markets according to both analysts and diplomats. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries now represent a unique combination of stability and transformation in a world where energy security continues to intersect with geopolitical tensions […]