A while back we wrote a piece about how the Lebanese economy was rebounding based in part on the fact that Lebanese entrepreneurs and workers send home to Lebanon a staggering $7.5 billion a year from overseas. Now it seems that Syria’s less centralized economy, integration of women into busin
In light of the latest set of nuclear maneuverings of Iran and Brazil and new proposed sanctions, it is worthwhile revisiting the confusion of global nuclear policy. Who can be and can’t be granted self-governance over nuclear development plans seems to be based on whim. It reads like a Marx B
05.18.2010 | Americas, Asia, Editorials, Europe, Middle East, Rest of the World | Stuart Ford
There was a certain symbolism in the recent dinner in Damascus between Sheikh Nasrallah. Leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad . The US has been frantically trying to reverse the mishandling of diplomatic relations wi
03.2.2010 | Iran, Middle East, Syria | Stuart Ford
There are many observers that think the recent really to commemorate the 5 year anniversary of murdered ex-Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafiq al-Hariri, marked the end of the line for the March 14 alliance. It seems the very bastions of the largely anti-Syria movement are eroding. Syria and Lebanon
The settlements keep growing, pre-emptive policies remain, the fence is being strengthened, and the swords are being rattled at Syria and Lebanon. Time moves on, but Israel isn't changing. Many had hoped that a new US President and a newly minted Knesset may have resulted in some progress in t
In a case of better late than never, the Obama Administration finally seems to have put its strategy ducks in order and moved to a more reasoned policy towards Syria. The timing is critical as Israel and Syria indulge in a war of words against the backdrop of escalating tension in the region The
02.8.2010 | Americas, Editorials, Middle East, Syria | Stuart Ford
Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir among others is quite outspoken that major funding and support of the Taliban in her country comes from the Saudi Wahhabis. So given this Saudi influence on the Taliban, the large number of Saudi-funded madrassas apparently spreading radicalizati
"If the Prophet Mohammed had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Mohammed himself a heretic"- Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun, the Mufti of Syria We have always argued that Al Qaeda and other associated insurgency franchises are not religious movements but transnational pol
The US just can’t seem to get the policy on Syria in step with Europe. Syria ha strengthened ties with France, has definitely boosted links with Turkey and seemed to be enjoying rapprochement to some degree with the UK. America however remains intransigent when it comes to even the most basic
"He was singing like a canary, then we charged him in civilian proceedings, he got a lawyer and shut up," Slade Gorton, a member of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the Sept 2001 terror attacks on the US, told The Sunday Telegraph. "I find it incomprehensible that this administration is tr
While in the West we have long been used to restrictions as to where one can smoke and the health effects of passive smoke, this has not been the case in many other parts of the world. Despite being reformed ourselves, one expects to be exposed to smoke when travelling in Asia Africa and the Mid
While we would love to claim prescience, we were not alone in predicting Syria as the potential key to the current regional quagmire. We have probably mentioned the issue more regularly, but there were several other analysts who recognized the same thing. The Bush Administration missed the strat
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