Photo source: Washington Institute  By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront   Sheikh Sabah al‑Ahmad al‑Sabah’s death in September 2020 closed a chapter in Gulf diplomacy that had been defined by moderation and mediation. As foreign minister for four decades and emir from 2006, he cultivated Kuwait’s reputation as a neutral actor in the Middle East. The Financial Times described him as one of the last elder statesmen of the Gulf, a leader who preferred shuttle diplomacy to confrontation, while Al Jazeera emphasised his role in shaping Kuwait’s image as a bridge‑builder. His family has ruled Kuwait for nearly two and a half centuries, but it was Sabah’s personal style that gave the country influence beyond its size. He was instrumental in the creation of the Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981, and his warnings about the dangers of unchecked rivalries were prescient. In his final speech to the national assembly in 2017, after visiting Saudi Arabia, he cautioned that the collap...

  Photo source: The New Arab By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront T he indiscriminate aerial bombings in Gaza in May 2021 marked the near terminal collapse of nearly three decades of flawed peacemaking in Palestine. The new attacks echoed what Gaza went through in 2008 and 2014 conflicts. It had begun with the Oslo Accords, which did not bring any viable framework for peaceful co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians. After that, a two state solution was rallied for, which granted powers of governance to the Palestinian Authority, whose formal role became policing Palestine in the context of an unending occupation. Repeated failures to revive negotiations for a two state solution have culminated in the so called ‘deal of the century’. Former President Donald Trump, in his hegemonic project, surrendered any pretension, for a moral standing under international law. It granted Israel an open license for land grabs, and colonial settlements. This deal of the century also ratifi...

  Photo source: Financial Times By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe UpFront Eighteen years have passed since United States invaded Iraq, and ousted a Baathist dictator. As the fifth general election since then concluded, Iraq’s political system is still dominated by guns. Iraqi law prohibits any political party, from having armed wings, but several groups openly violate this measure. The Fatah alliance, for example, brings together dozens of Shia militias including Kata’ib Hezbollah, as does the Shia populist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr. There is also an illicit flow of money that comes with these elections. No regional party in the election, however, had put any political platforms. Rather, they were appealing to the voters on the basis of religious, ethnic and tribal loyalty. The election result hinted that major established parties were on the losing track. The voter turnout was also reduced to an all-time low, since the 2003 election. Fatah, an alliance of parties linked to mi...

  Photo source: Al Jazeera By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Throngs of protesters marched in October 2021 in Khartoum and other major cities, to voice their support for a civilian rule. To some estimates, participants numbered in thousands. Many businesses in central Khartoum had been closed in anticipation of more protests, and there was an extensive police presence. The demonstrators, who were seen arriving in central Khartoum on dozens of buses, clashed with police, and were gassed heavily. Earlier to this, members of an unidentified armed group removed security barriers around government buildings and prevented the police and security forces from preparing for the march. It is Sudan’s biggest political crises in its two year old transition. The military had dissolved the transitional government, and also arrested the prime minister Hamdok and some other civilian leaders. It made African Union suspend Sudan's membership.   Before the coup, Sudanese graveled about t...

  Photo source: Business Standard By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Power dynamics are changing in the Eastern Mediterranean, as Greek parliament in October 2021 struck a multi-billion euro military deal with France. This deal could decide the long term regional security context. The defense pact includes critical upgrades for the Hellenic navy through a major partnership with the French navy. This deal could even have major strategic implications for the EU as a whole, and can even impact the transatlantic region. The negotiations to upgrade the Hellenic navy had been going on for a while. Athens had initially rejected the purchase of the Belharra FDIs (Frigate for Defence and Intervention) in August 2020, when the initial French offer was deemed expensive. Paris apparently revised their proposal providing more favourable terms, and then pushed for a quick seal of the deal. Hence, this could become a major step in the expansion of French defence industry. It, at the same time...

  Photo source: Human Rights Watch By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront B angladeshi government wants to relocate around eighty thousand Rohingyas to Bhasan Char Island. This plan is meant to relieve the pressure of the over crowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, where nearly one million refugees live. These refugees are being lured on this silt island, near Bay of Bengal, on the promises of better standards of living and monthly cash assistance. Although, the hurried relocation to the island presents some serious concerns to the rights of the refugees . This problem demands urgency because during the monsoon season there is grave risk that the refugees, as well as several thousand Bangladeshi officials and volunteers, could end up confined on the island in cyclone-prone waters without adequate food, water, medical care, and transportation. The island also lacks an airstrip for fixed-winged airplanes, reflecting serious concerns of human settlement on the island. The Bangladeshi governm...

  Photo source: LSE By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront It was in June 2019 when Serbian government launched attacks on the homeless people and tenants in the Balkan country with creation of new laws. The Left East reported that a couple of young anti-eviction activists were beaten up, allegedly by some right-wing elements inside the Novi Sad university campus. More than seven hundred people had gathered at the university. As per Masina, the draft of the amendments imposes new fines on tenants over their defaulted rents, and legitimises the actions of private enforcement officers during evictions. In response, activists from the group, Roof Over One’s Head, had protested at Novi Sad and Belgrade against the attacks on housing activists. They also demanded the withdrawal of the upcoming amendments to the Law on Enforcement and Security which would legitimise forceful evictions. Forceful evictions had become a norm in Serbia in 2019. The country had witnessed widespread protests i...

Photo source: Council for Foreign Relations By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront In October 2021, China flew its military planes around one forty-nine times around Taiwan, trying to display its military might and thereby putting pressure on the country. In response, the self governing island scrambled its own warplanes, and this scenario looked like a theater of war. Taiwanese defense ministry described the current situation as most severe in forty years. Taiwan had split from China since the civil war erupted in 1949. Domestically, the military pressure serves Chinese President Xi Jinping’s propaganda and political agenda. Xi’s defining political idea is promoting the ‘China Dream’ to his people, which entails becoming ‘a strong nation with a strong army’ in the future. China’s nationalist Global Times newspaper even went so far as to call the flight incursions a form of National Day 'military parade'. This escalation has come at a time, when Chinese Communist Party is at a...

  Photo source: Moscow Times By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Diplomatic relations between Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan reached a breaking point in late February 2020, when thirty‑three Turkish soldiers were killed in a single airstrike in Idlib. According to CNN reporters Gul Tuysuz and Isil Sariyuce, the attack was the deadliest day for Turkey’s forces since their involvement in Syria began. Al Jazeera also confirmed the scale of the losses, noting that Turkey vowed to retaliate against ‘all’ Syrian positions. The UN estimated that nearly 700,000 civilians had been displaced between December 2019 and February 2020 as fighting escalated, underscoring the humanitarian toll. Turkey’s defence minister Hulusi Akar charged that the attack had occurred despite coordination with Russian officials. His communications director, Fahrettin Altun, argued that Moscow bore responsibility under the Astana and Sochi accords. Yet the Russian Defence Ministry rejected Akar’s claim....

  Photo source: Irish Times By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe UpFront The far right in Italy, known as destra sovranista, as it prefers itself to be labelled, along with centre-right parties such as Brothers of Italy, League and Forza Italia account for most of the polling preferences today. They have many overlapping features and comparable political programs. That’s why, the political case of Italy is unique in Europe, perhaps at a global level, too. For the future elections, former prime minister and founder of Forza Italia Silvio Berlusconi has recently floated the idea of partito unico, a single party that would unite all spectrums of rightist parties. However, this proposal has left Giorgia Meloni, leader of Brothers of Italy, indifferent. Matteo Salvini, leader of League on the other hand, seems more cautious, leaving a door for opening up of a ‘federation’ of Italian centre right. The possibility of a federation between League and Forza Italia will give some advantages to Salv...

  Photo source: National Post By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront J ustin Trudeau has won a historic back-to-back third election in Canada. He is now in the elite company of prime ministers. However, he had won the third term through a snap election, by dissolution of the parliament in August 2021. An early opinion poll before the dissolution had kept his Liberal Party ahead, but that soon changed with O’Toole’s CPC moving ahead. Although, he had been positive about his campaign as he thought that his management for Covid was successful. “It looks like nobody wanted an election and no one got what they wanted,” said the Toronto Star political columnist Chantal Hebert as results came in, reflecting the peculiarity of the election. When it comes to his first term, it was often tainted as scandal ridden and shambolic. For the second time since 2019, Trudeau has been handed a minority government by Canadians, meaning he will have to reach across the aisle to work with smaller partie...

  Photo source: The New Arab By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront In July 2021, Syrian government forces re-entered Daraa, a city indelibly linked to the origins of the uprising that began in March 2011. It was here that residents toppled a statue of Hafez al-Assad —a moment that came to symbolise popular defiance against an entrenched regime. As Martin Chulov of The Guardian observed, Daraa has always carried deep symbolic weight: it ignited the revolt, and its later subjugation was intended to demonstrate the regime’s capacity to extinguish dissent. It also underscored Russia’s ambition to cast itself as Syria’s guarantor of order. The roots of the 2021 crisis lay in the 2018 ‘reconciliation’ agreement brokered by Russia following a major southern offensive. That deal partitioned Daraa into zones: the east under full regime authority, and the west—particularly Daraa al-Balad—under local committees composed of former rebels and civilians. Writing for the Carnegie Middle East ...