AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

An invisible existence

13 Jul 2023

The ban on Afghan beauty salons and women’s hairdressers, set to take effect at the end of this month, is the latest tactic in the Taliban’s campaign to erase women...

Financial curbs on Syria must be lifted first

18 Jun 2023

Last week the European Union mounted its seventh conference to raise money for Syria and received pledges of Euros 9.6 billion in grants and loans, half a billion Euros short...

Absurd claims

15 Jun 2023

International personalities can make or break policies. Take the example of the International Criminal Court (ICC) where Briton Karim Khan has sidelined investigations of Israeli occupation policies in Palestine. Probes...

Mass shootings are not confined to America

11 Jun 2023

US mass shootings are infectious. Last month Serbia suffered two mass shootings. The first took place on May 5th when a 13-year-old boy killed nine at a Belgrade school, in...

Always centre stage

08 Jun 2023

A comic-actor-turned-war-leader Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has become a major character in a European tragic drama which could usher in nuclear exchanges between Russia and NATO. He remains an actor...

Return to the Non-Alignment spirit vital now

04 Jun 2023

The Russo-Ukraine war and risky politico-economic competition between the US and China have made a pro-active return to Non-Alignment all the more necessary at this time of nuclear peril. Russia,...

Arab astronauts

01 Jun 2023

Saudi astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi is the first Muslim, Arab woman to be blasted into space and join the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting the earth. Barnawi, 33,...

Zelensky wanted to ‘breach’ US pact not to attack Russia

28 May 2023

Among the dozens of classified US intelligence documents leaked on the Discord messaging platform by Massachusetts national guardsman Jack Teixeira were reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seeks to breach...

The return home

25 May 2023

When Arab foreign ministers met on May 7 to lift Syria’s suspension from the Arab League, they called for a “voluntary and safe return of refugees [as] an urgent priority”...

In Japan’s peace haven, G7 leaders talk war

21 May 2023

Last week saw three summits with contradictory agendas: war making, defence and peace making. The summit of the Group of Seven major industrialised countries (G7) focused on war and sanctions...

Michael Jansen

The author, a well-respected observer of Middle East affairs, has three books on the Arab-Israeli conflict.