AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

Dangerous myths surrounding 9/11 attacks

12 Sep 2021

The September 11th, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington have inspired dangerous myths which have driven the never-ending “war on terrorism,” destroyed several countries in the Wider Middle East,...

Plotting their escape

09 Sep 2021

My friend Nada is planning her retreat from Beirut. She has renewed her French passport which gives her exile options, vaccinated, and microchipped her cat ahead of their voyage, and asked her...

US war pushes 90% of Afghans into poverty

05 Sep 2021

Once the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was complete, US President Joe Biden proclaimed an end to the two decade US-led war in that country as well as an end to...

A conspiracy of silence

02 Sep 2021

For 54 years there has been a conspiracy of silence over the motive of Sirhan Sirhan who shot US presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy in the crowded serving kitchen passage of...

Kabul: An uncertain future laden with risks

29 Aug 2021

US President Joe Biden has claimed a US drone strike eliminated a Daesh-Khorasan (Daesh-K) “planner” and a “facilitator” and wounded another person in his effort to exact revenge for the...

Food for thought

26 Aug 2021

Coffee is just one of the gifts the Arabs have given to the world. Cultivated and consumed in Yemen in the 15th century, the beverage gave birth to coffee houses where...

The endless agony of long-suffering Afghans

22 Aug 2021

The geo-political fallout from the chaotic and disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the human tragedy this will produce will haunt US presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Trump mandated...

Help in desperation

19 Aug 2021

On the day of his death last week, Italy’s La Stampa published an article by Italian surgeon Gino Strada who argued that the Taliban take-over of Afghanistan “shouldn’t surprise anyone...

Americans not doing enough on security

15 Aug 2021

The withdrawal from Afghanistan could be the worst US debacle of the 21st century. The first was, of course, the war on Iraq, which destabilised the whole of this region....

An aggressive line

12 Aug 2021

Afghan local governor Salima Mazari is a rare woman in the position she holds and is leading popular resistance to the Taliban which has already taken over half her district....

Michael Jansen

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