Photo source: Foreign Policy By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront The attacks in the Sinai peninsula in May 2022 by the Islamic State were one of the deadliest in the region in recent memory, and they raise an important matter at hand: if Abdel Fattah al-Sisi must be supported by Western patrons for ‘counter-terrorism ties’, why is Islamic State still successful in expanding extremist activities in Egypt? And, why hasn’t he become successful until now? To combat extremism efforts, the Egyptian military had expanded in the areas of northern Sinai between the Gaza strip in the east and the Suez Canal in the west, allowing for a return of some civilian activity. But, the strategy has largely backfired as Islamic State militants are continuing to seek refuge in the desert, and are using different tactics such as sniping and planting explosives. Sinai, itself, has been brimming in conflict for decades. It started with Naseer’s dubious pan Arabism, and Egyptian discrimination against Arab ...

Photo source: Guardian By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront When Scott Morrison won an election in 2019, he said that he believed in miracles. In the 2022 election, it seems that he ran out of them. After the verdict, he accepted defeat, and believed in the ‘judgement of the Australian masses’. Among the two major party leaders, Morrison was looked at as more of an experienced image builder. He projected himself as the typical ‘Australian dad’, someone who you can trust, someone who had seen the country through the pandemic, and whose governing Liberal-National coalition had been the better economic manager of Australia. With time, however, Aussies started disliking him. The image of a trustworthy family man had been eroded over the past three years because they thought that it was not genuine, and not to be trusted. There were many moments in the last three years when his leadership fell short. Many of those affected by Australia’s natural disasters believed that he wasn’t on the gr...

  Photo source: US news By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Emmanuel Macron’s re election in April 2022 marked an important moment in contemporary French politics. By securing a second mandate, he became the first French president in two decades to win re election, the last being Jacques Chirac in 2002. The achievement confirmed that Macron’s political experiment launched only a few years earlier with a brand new movement and without the backing of traditional party structures had transformed the country’s political landscape. His presidency has been defined by ambitious reform, an attempt to reshape the centre of French politics, and a controversial mix of liberal economic policies and assertive state authority. From the moment he first sought the presidency in 2017, Macron presented himself as a reformer determined to break with the old political order. France had long been dominated by the alternating power of the centre right Republicans and the Socialist Party. Macron dis...

  Photo source: Arab News By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront In a calculated manner, Turkey launched its new cross-border operation, codenamed Claw Lock against Kurdistan Worker’s Party in northern Iraq in April 2022. Post-2015, it is Turkey’s latest effort to strangle PKK’s freedom of movement, and gradually weaken its associates. Operation Claw-Lock is the successor of the similarly named joint air and ground operations Claw-Lightning and Claw-Thunderbolt in 2021, and Claw-Eagle and Claw-Tiger in 2020. The Turkish military is carrying out helicopter-borne commando raids on mountains and into caves. Unlike past operations that concluded by winter, Turkish forces, in these new operations, are making gains all year round, through the establishment of an increasing number of military outposts, and forward operating bases in strategically important areas. Although these operations have failed to rout out PKK in the Qandil stronghold, they have nevertheless put unprecedented pressu...

Photo source: The New Arab By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront By tightening national and security protocols, Greece is using Middle Eastern and South Asian refugees to carry out extrajudicial deportations. In a report by Human Rights Watch in April 2022, asylum seekers who crossed the Greco-Turkish border were stripped, beaten, robbed and forced to wade through chest-high freezing water back to Turkey. This is a sadistic twist on the European border regime. Known as refugee commandos, they work not on money, but on the promises of asylum. No one should be surprised that the securitisation of Europe’s border has directly depended on the violence and humiliation of refugees. Since the Arab Spring happened, the European Union has shaped its border policy in such a way that it deflects people seeking safety inside Europe. No European leader condemns this. Member states are banding together their border defence forces which are now stronger than Frontex, the EU’s own border agency. The...

  Photo source: Al Jazeera By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Swedish cities of Norrkoping and Linkoping have been rocked by anti-migrant rallies and clashes as Sweden’s far-right extremists have gone as far as instigating a campaign for burning the Muslim holy book, the Quran. The riots sparked after an anti-Muslim Danish Swedish politician called Rasmus Paludan, belonging to Stram Kurs (Hardline) party, announced his ‘burning tour’ of the Quran during the holy month of Ramadhan across Sweden in April 2022. This highly provocative incitement was publicly sanctioned by the Swedish authorities. After that, several other cities witnessed riots as well. As a matter of fact, Azra Muranovic, deputy chair of the Municipal Council of Vernamo and a Social Democrat party politician believed that the Quran burning was a planned campaign. But, the Swedish government believes that there are some foreign actors behind the riots, despite giving Paludan a green signal for Quran burning. The ...

Photo source: New Arab By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront For further normalisation of Israel-Arab relations, Negev Summit happened in Israel in March 2022. Organised by Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, it was a diplomatic move which would strengthen the already drafted Abraham Accords. Four Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Egypt attended the summit. There was a hefty dose of symbolism to the Negev Summit, beginning with its location which was in Kibbutz Sde Boker, the final home of Israel’s founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, who was also the first signatory of the country’s declaration of independence.  The Negev Summit was also concomitant as it took place twenty years to the day since the adoption of the Arab Peace Initiative at the Beirut Arab League summit of 2002. That initiative, ground-breaking at the time, offered full normalisation and peace with Israel upon Israel’s acceptance of a Palestinian state and the fruition ...