Far Horizons, Arduous Journeys, and The Conference of the Birds
“The Concourse of the Birds” (ca. 1600), Metropolitan Museum of Art by Jon W. Anderson Amid the blizzard of punditry and spin-doctoring …
The Ghost of Amanullah: Afghanistan Redux
The Khyber Pass in 1923 Historians generally assume that “modernity” jump-started in Afghanistan in 1919 with the crowning of Ghazi Amanullah Khan …
Picturing the “Enemy”
My friend Karim Ben Khelifa, an award-winning photographic journalist who I met over a decade ago, has produced an extraordinary film (“The …
Weapons of the Syrian War
For an animated video of the weapons used by all sides in Syria, click here. by Ben Watson, Defense One, July 19, …
Trump’s Muslim Bashing
The Atlantic (June 16) has a powerful piece by Uri Friedman on Donald Trump’s rampant Muslim bashing with responses by six Muslim …
Reforming Saudi Arabia?
Mystique of Monarchy Post-War Watch – April 19, 2016 https://postwarwatch.com/2016/04/19/mystique-of-monarchy/ MADAWI AL-RASHEED — Limited social and political reforms in Saudi Arabia only …
On Drones
Al-Jazeera has recently published an article on an American serviceman who helped design the drone program in Afghanistan. The article is online …
Ten Ways on How Not To Think About the Iran/Saudi Conflict
by Omid Safi (@ostadjaan), On Being columnist, January 7, 2016 In the last few days, virtually every news outlet has featured a …
Geopolitics in the Middle East: A new century dawns
Faisal party at Versailles Conference. Left to right: Rustum Haidar, Nuri as-Said, Prince Faisal (front), Captain Pisani (rear), T. E. Lawrence, Faisal’s …
Armageddon after Ankara
The Ankara bombing: Presaging the end of the Turkish Republic? What we have witnessed in the last two years, culminating in the …
Tunisia after the terror attacks
by Rachid Ghannouchi © Qantara.de 2015 Translated from the German by Nina Coon A battle for freedom and dignity In the wake …
Voltaire on Tolerance
The author of Candide knew that this was not the best of all possible worlds. But Voltaire has sound advice about the …
Commentary Hell
We moderns devour news as if it were a staple food. Gone are the days when one sat down for coffee in …
The Bridge over Islamophobia
John Esposito at the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service has just provided a unique website …
Clausewitz Updated and downsized
There is a nicely done satire by Sean McFate on how to take over a small country. Check it out here. Note: …