SUSTG.com / Research

Discover stories, topics, and more about Saudi Arebia faster.

Recent stories from sustg

MUST-READS

  • Coffee connection? How Saudi Arabia’s growers hope to fill your cup.

    Now, an ambitious new plan by the Saudi government envisions yet another role for this ancestral crop: a national industry aiming to fill your next morning cup.

  • Has Iraq’s Sadr entered confrontation with the international community?

    Iraqi Shiite cleric and politician Muqtada Al-Sadr has taken bold steps this summer. In June, after a months-long effort to form a “national majority government” with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Sunni Arabs following the Oct. 2021 parliamentary elections, he ordered his 73-member bloc to resign from the 329-seat parliament. In July, his supporters stormed the parliament twice as his rivals in the Shiite Coordination Framework moved to form a government.

  • Perspective: Will Biden’s Pact with Israel draw the U.S. into Another Middle East War?

    On 14 July 2022, U.S. president Joe Biden and Israeli prime minister Yair Lipid, signed the Joint Declaration on the US-Israel Strategic Partnership. The U.S. pledged “never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that it is prepared to use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome.”

  • Commentary: Where was Hamas during Israel’s latest bombardment of Gaza?

    Moreover, Hamas knew that Israel was well prepared for the offensive, having covered all avenues through which the Palestinian resistance could have made any gains. It mobilised 25,000 reservists, entrenched tanks and artillery so that they would not be targeted easily by the Palestinian resistance groups, and put the Israeli settler community near the nominal border with Gaza in secure locations. After weighing up the situation from a military perspective, Hamas decided that it would not gain anything from being involved.

  • Can the U.S. Win the Long Game for the Middle East?

    With a consistent and bipartisan realist Middle East policy, the Saudis and other crucial allies will view Washington as a more dependable patron and will thus be more willing to engage on various geostrategic and diplomatic issues. The president’s attempt to reset America’s relationship with its Gulf allies also presents Washington with an opportunity to pursue a more pragmatic and sustainable human rights agenda: a balance between a problematic policy of unconditional support and a counterproductive “pariah” strategy.

  • Which Countries Produce the Most Natural Gas?

    Natural gas is part of nearly every aspect of our daily lives. It is used for heating, cooking, electricity generation, as fuel for motor vehicles, in fertilizers, and in the manufacture of plastics.

  • The Oil Market: Swinging back to Saudi Arabia?

    Saudi Arabia had retained the top position as the largest exporter of crude oil since the 1980s, except for a brief period in the early 1980s when Russia was the top exporter. In 2021, Saudi Arabia exported over 6.2 mb/d of crude compared to 4.5 mb/d by Russia and 2.9 mb/d by the USA.

  • The Oil Market: Swinging back to Saudi Arabia?

    Saudi Arabia had retained the top position as the largest exporter of crude oil since the 1980s, except for a brief period in the early 1980s when Russia was the top exporter. In 2021, Saudi Arabia exported over 6.2 mb/d of crude compared to 4.5 mb/d by Russia and 2.9 mb/d by the USA.

  • Where Does al-Zawahri’s Death Leave al-Qaida?

    Evidence suggests al-Qaida’s presence as a global movement will survive al-Zawahri’s death, just as it did bin Laden’s. The network has seen a number of recent successes. Longtime allies the Taliban successfully took control of Afghanistan with help from al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent – an affiliate which is now expanding its operations in Pakistan and India. Meanwhile, affiliates across the African continent – from Mali and the Lake Chad region to Somalia – remain a threat, with some expanding beyond their traditional areas of operation. Other affiliates, like the group’s Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, remain loyal to the core and, according to the U.N. monitoring team, are keen to revive overseas attacks against the U.S. and its allies.

  • Will the Middle East be a flashpoint between the US and China?

    “In a region that is in a period of transition, people are not thinking in binary terms, namely either the US or China,” said al-Sudairi. “They need both.”