Iran’s announcement that “non-hostile vessels” will be allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz is the latest—and perhaps clearest—illustration of how oil has become a weapon of war. In a letter to the International Maritime Organization, Tehran framed the restriction of certain vessels as a lawful act of self-defense, explicitly linking access to the world’s most critical… Continue reading Who Pumps the Oil… and Who Controls It? 

The Arab Gulf has entered a critical phase in which its security architecture is being actively reshaped. The expansion of the U.S.–Israeli confrontation with Iran, and the resulting spillover across the region, has moved the Gulf from a peripheral theater to a central arena of escalation. Cross-border attacks targeting vital infrastructure—using ballistic missiles such as… Continue reading GCC Air Defense Between Challenge and Transformation 

The gravity of war in the Middle East cannot be measured by the depth of depleted arsenals or the number of sorties that streak across its skies, but by the structural imbalances it exposes and the truths it lays bare—truths that have long been hidden behind facades of alliances, agreements, and hollow slogans.  The open confrontation unfolding today between the United States and Israel on one… Continue reading To Protect Its Strategic Interests, the Gulf Must Form a More Cohesive Bloc