Middle East Dossier

Youths make up 16 per cent of the world’s population today. Over the next 30 years, the youth population is expected to continue to grow in some regions like the Arab Middle East (UN 2019), which will in turn change the demography of the region. In this lecture, we will discuss how these demographic shifts and political instability in the region are upturning social expectations, especially for wo...

In a world of autocracy, repression and conflict, polls often offer ordinary citizens a rare opportunity to express an opinion. Independent pollsters operating in cooperation with local polling companies have gathered more than a decade of data that provides crucial insight into public opinion often not reflected in much of the Middle East’s print and broadcast media. Polling data has, over time,...

In this episode, we turn to the role of the United Nations. Specifically, we will be talking to Dr Sorcha MacLeod about the vision of the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of people to self-determination. This working group is an independent expert body established by the United Nations’ Human Rights C...

ME101 Lecture #08: The Challenge Beyond Economics | Climate Change in a Desert by  Aisha Al-Sarihi  [Thursday, 08 October 2020] Climate scientists show us that ‘warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia’: the atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amount of snow and ice have diminished, the sea level h...

The United States has long been regarded as the pivotal power player in the Middle East — leaving its mark in war and in peace for half a century. If President Donald Trump wins a second term, will he double down on his “maximum pressure” against Iran — and will it yield the better-than-JCPOA grand bargain he has promised? Will his Israeli–Palestinian “Vision for Peace” gain traction and wider Ara...

The leaking in recent months of an alleged 25-year economic and military cooperation agreement between China and Iran has sparked intense debate among Western and Middle Eastern policymakers, pundits and journalists. If indeed signed, the agreement would significantly alter the balance of power in the Middle East, potentially draw China into the Saudi–Iranian conflict, and add one more dimension t...

More than a quarter-century of fitful, failed and abandoned attempts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict blocked efforts to formally widen the circle of Arab–Israeli peace after the Jordanian–Israeli treaty of 1994 — although under-the-table contacts and cooperation, mutually beneficial to Israel and key Arab states, were maintained.  Shifting US policies, shared concerns about common enem...

ME 101 Lecture #06: The Politics of Economic Reform by  Rana Karadsheh-Haddad  [Thursday, 24 September 2020] After focusing on the geopolitical aspects of the region during the first six lectures, we will now turn to another important aspect, particularly for Singapore: The economic transformation being undertaken by many countries in the region, particularly the oil-producing ones. This effort ha...

In this webinar, Dr Sean McFate, Mr Jamie Williamson and Mr Doug Brooks will discuss how mercenaries and private military companies are changing the rules of war and peacebuilding. Since the second Iraq conflict, the growing presence of private military contractors has generated the need for effective public and private participation and re-statement of existing international law regarding the con...

With the exception of Kuwait, the Gulf states’ interest in cultivating ties with Israeli and Jewish figures in the United States is an open secret. With the UAE’s recent normalisation of relations with Israel under the Abraham Accord, the commonly held notion that territorial concessions to the Palestinians are a prerequisite for formalising diplomatic relations with Arab states has been called in...

In this week's lecture, Kevjn Lim examines the current axes of Israel's cooperation and competition, addressing Israel's military and security doctrine, its Mediterranean politics and relations with Turkey, and the implications of the United States’ gradual abdication of responsibility in the region and China’s increasing presence. 

The United States became a strategic player in the Middle East only in the second half of the 1950s as its reliance on Persian Gulf oil increased and it realized that it could no longer rely on Britain to protect its interests in the region. This pattern – a combination of interests and balance of power calculations – would shape the evolution of American policies in the Middle East ever since. Ev...

In the third instalment of our Salon series, we dive into the fascinating world of Arabic culture with Ms Zeinab Hendawi. Understanding the differences between Arab culture and others can prevent cultural misinterpretation and can build a better appreciation and respect towards Arabs.

In this week’s ME101 Lecture, Alessandro Arduino examines China's geopolitical interest and influence in the Middle East, and evaluates the sustainability of its cautious, non-interference approach in the region.

In this week’s ME101 Lecture, Serkan Yolaçan and Asif Shuja analyse the visions and capabilities of Turkey and Iran,  their cooperation with Russia, and their political reach into Asia.

What are the costs of participation in the global art world? This talk highlights recent debates about the value of art in Syria both before and after the 2011 uprisings, regime reprisals and devastating wars. Professor Anneka Lenssen will be drawing on her fieldwork in Syria between 2008 and 2010 to discuss the acute changes in Syria’s national art scene after Bashar al-Asad’s regime opted to ope...

What are the new developments in the Middle East and why should Singapore care? MEI Chairman Bilahari Kausikan kicks off this year's ME 101 lecture series answering these key questions.

In this episode of Boots Off the Ground, Dr Francesco Milan and Dr Aniseh Bassiri talk about the prevalence of drone usage in contemporary warfare, breaking down the political risks and implications of using drones as opposed to human soldiers. 

The book Palestinian Refugees in International Law deals with the largest, most protracted and politically fraught refugee situation of the post-WWII era. In this talk, Ms Francesca Albanese and Dr Lex Takkenberg debate the issue of Palestinian refugees and the need for principled action to realise their rights.

Mr Masakazu Toyoda, Chairman & CEO of The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ) examines the need for cooperation between the Middle East and Asia in terms of energy, and elaborates on the future of energy beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

In this podcast, we talk with Mr Liu Qing (director of international business development and management division, Huaxin Zhongan Security Group) about the role Chinese private security companies play in the industry.

With her video highlights of her 2013 Persian trip, visual storyteller Mandy Tay showed us a very different side of Iran. In this MEI Salon session, she talked about her experience working in Dubai and how being a solo female traveller has transformed her.

The gradual shift in the global economic order, which is becoming increasingly apparent over the last decade, has re-oriented the contours of the Gulf–Asia relations. The rise of Asia and the Gulf, itself a part of Asia, led to a shift and restructuring of the global economy. The Gulf “Look East” policy coincided with some Asian countries’ “Look West” policy. Will this global economic shift contin...

Dr Kristian Ulrichsen, author of Qatar and the Gulf Crisis, elaborates on the implications of the Qatar blockade, which was implemented three years ago. The isolation of Qatar from its Gulf neighbours may have had limited successes, due to a tense political–economic climate and the decisions to act according to international pressures as opposed to the GCC's regional mechanisms.

In this podcast, Mr Raffaello Pantucci will talk about the risks and threats posed by returning foreign fighters.