The most obvious places to assess the implications of these elections are Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, where the results would directly shape political authority, government, and institutions. But viewed from Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps, the elections reveal another, perhaps more complex, dimension. It is important to distinguish between two separate but interconnected electoral… Continue reading Lebanon’s Camps and Palestinian Legitimacy

In August, the Muslim holy city of Mecca lent its name to a mutual defense pact signed by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan. Just weeks later, air-raid sirens were sounding in the same city as missiles and drones launched from Yemen allegedly approached—an interval short enough to expose the distance between the security architecture Saudi… Continue reading What Comes After Bab al-Mandab?

The UN General Assembly convened its 81st session under the title “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations That Delivers for All”, which is less of a diplomatic slogan than an acknowledgment of crisis. The world body faces a growing dilemma: a declining confidence in the international order and the UN’s ability to uphold the… Continue reading The UN and the Fracturing of the World Order