Saudi conduct of its ill-fated war in Yemen coupled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s alignment with the Trump administration and Israel, and his often coercive approach to diplomatic relations, has opened the door to challenges of the kingdom’s moral leadership of the Sunni Muslim world, a legitimizing pillar of the ruling Al Saud family’s…
The failure of Western allies to rally around Canada in its dispute with Saudi Arabia risks luring the kingdom into a false belief that economic sanctions will shield it from, if not reverse mounting criticism of its human rights record and conduct of the war in Yemen. It also risks convincing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed…
Increased Pakistani dependence on China to help it avert resorting to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avoid a financial and economic crisis spotlights fears that the terms of Chinese investment in massive Belt and Road-related projects would not pass international muster. Concerns that China’s US$ 50 billion plus investment in Pakistani infrastructure and energy,…
The South East Asian sub-region (SEA) remains an important link in the chain of direct as well as indirect “conflict zones”, beginning on the Korean Peninsula and ending at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca, in the Sino-American standoff. There is no scoring system to keep track of “goals, points, seconds” that could be…
Former long-time Prime Minister and nonagenarian Mahathir bin Mohamad returned to office after incumbent Najib Razak suffered a humiliating loss that many analysts attribute to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB corruption scandal that he’s implicated in. A whistleblower leaked incriminating documents about this scam a couple of years ago that have since been used as the basis…
The Crown Princes of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and the Malaysian Sultanate of Johor are all staking their respective claims to authority that have far-reaching consequences beyond their own potentates. The princelings of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi are heirs apparent. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) is the designated heir to the aged…
