AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

Empire Rains Down

05 Mar 2020

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s mission is to “make Turkey great again” by restoring some of the Ottoman empire’s liberated territories and winning over populations in these lands by promoting...

Forest for the Trees

27 Feb 2020

Amazon’s hyper-billionaire Jeff Bezos has pledged $10 billion (Dhs36.7b) of his personal fortune to fight climate change by funding scientists, activists and non-governmental organisations searching for ways and means to...

Amid Turkey’s games, the fight for Syria continues

24 Feb 2020

The struggle for Syria continues unabated with Russia and Turkey as the chief external actors. In his book entitled, “The Struggle for Syria,” British journalist and historian Patrick Seale described...

Race Against Time

20 Feb 2020

Results of the state-by-state races for the Democratic Party’s nomination do not reflect the national ranking of remaining candidates. Last weekend’s vote in Nevada was the third contest for the...

Iran is surrounded by US-fuelled antagonism, thanks to Trump

16 Feb 2020

Iranians are set to vote on Friday in a parliamentary election which could empower the hardest of the hardliners and decide who will succeed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 80,...

We ourselves

13 Feb 2020

The rise of Ireland’s Sinn Fein in Saturday’s parliamentary poll has transformed the country’s two-party political system by empowering a major third party for the first time during a century of Irish...

Erdogan is a ‘spoiler’ in efforts to end the war in Syria

09 Feb 2020

The Syrian army’s capture of the strategic town of Saraqeb is a turning point in the protracted campaign for Idlib province, the remaining bastion of Al Qaeda’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,...

Second Scottish referendum ‘must be legal and legitimate’

06 Feb 2020

Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon has urged fellow countrymen and women not to demand an early independence referendum following Britain’s formal exit from the European Union (EU). She said now is the...

‘Deal of the Century’ Trump’s most destructive decision

04 Feb 2020

Just about all the decisions taken by Donald Trump since he moved into the White House have been motivated by his determination to be re-elected this fall. His...

Tahrir Square style protests still fire up Arabs

26 Jan 2020

Nine years and two days ago, Egyptian opposition activists called for demonstrations at two locations in Cairo. The occasion was National Police Day. Organisers expected 50 people to...

Michael Jansen

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