geopolitics.
10 pieces filed under geopolitics
The Indian Ocean Is Quietly Becoming the Center of the World Again
For centuries the ocean linking the Gulf, East Africa, and South Asia was the heart of trade, and it is quietly returning to that role
By Sara Qureshi
WorldJun 4
The Second Passport Has Become a Piece of Furniture, Not a Decision
Why the regional professional class has stopped treating the second citizenship as an ambitious life choice and started treating it as a moderately interesting drawer in the desk.
By Priya Chen
WorldJun 4
The Airport Transit Zone Is Now the Region's Most Underrated Soft Power Instrument
Forget the embassies. Forget the cultural attaches. The first impression of a country is now formed in the eight minutes between the jetbridge and the connecting gate.
By Mira Faraj
WorldJun 3
The Suitcase Economy of the Arrivals Hall Is Bigger Than the Trade Statistics
Why a quietly enormous category of regional cross-border commerce is moving in passengers' checked baggage, and why nobody who tracks trade data is counting it.
By Mira Faraj
WorldJun 3
A Global Shipping Route Just Quietly Rerouted Itself
It was not in any communique. It was not announced. It happened in the AIS data three weeks ago and the only people who have noticed are the people who pay for AIS data.
By Mira Faraj
WorldJun 3
Central Asia Is Quietly the Next Pipeline of Pipelines
Why a region nobody in Gulf finance was thinking about three years ago is suddenly on every infrastructure desk's whiteboard.
By Marcus Okafor
WorldJun 3
The Diaspora Is Banking Differently. The Banks Have Not Quite Noticed.
Why the remittance corridor between a particular pair of countries is being quietly disintermediated, and what the incumbent banks are doing about it, which is mostly nothing.
By Lena Holloway
WorldJun 3
The Embassy Iftar Is the Most Underestimated Instrument of Regional Foreign Policy
Why a single carefully assembled guest list, served on a single carefully assembled plate, can do more strategic work in three hours than a year of communiques.
By Lena Holloway
WorldJun 3
North African Renewables Are Quietly Becoming a Gulf Investment Story
Why several Gulf funds have started buying meaningful positions in renewables projects across North Africa, and what the local governments are doing about it.
By Lena Holloway
PoliticsSep 29
Talking Instead of Fighting: The Gulf's De-Escalation Turn
After years of rivalry and proxy conflict, a pragmatic logic of mending fences has taken hold across the region's diplomacy.
By Lena Holloway