Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Follow Carnegie
- Search
- Global Resources
Global Centers
Languages
In the Middle East, producers are facing different effects of the recent drop in oil prices. Four oil experts explore the impact of falling prices on the economies of key regional producers.
Renewed high-level diplomatic activity between Qatar and Saudi Arabia may end their historic row as the GCC seeks policy alignment, particularly on security issues.
Doha's foreign policy setbacks over the past year may press Qatar toward reconciliation with Saudi Arabia, despite their recent spat.
The falling out between Riyadh and Doha leaves Yemen divided over which patron to follow.
Tensions between Salafis and disenfranchised Houthis along the Saudi-Yemeni border escalate amid fears of insurgency.
Saudi Arabia appears, on the surface, to have escaped the Arab Uprisings untouched. Yet its political trajectory and future stability remain uncertain. Are government responses to rising pressures indicative of an impending change or a sign of state strength?
Saudi Arabia is in the throes of an identity crisis that could ultimately lead to a redefining of its founding pact.
The responses of Gulf Cooperation Council countries to the 2011 uprisings only reinforce a culture of state dependency.
Rumblings of change are growing louder in Saudi society; but is the monarchy prepared to give in?
Whispers of a Bahraini-Saudi union have long abounded. Yet only recently has the matter been discussed realistically—most visibly during May 14’s GCC meeting. Is such a union possible?
Saudi Arabia’s pillars of stability are weakening, but the opposition remains fragmented.
Tunisia’s 217-member Constituent Assembly must now write a constitution. What are the next stages of institutional reform?
In the wake of the region’s political tremors, Gulf monarchies are claiming reform of their security sectors. But are the changes enough—and are they genuine?
Saudi King Abdullah’s decree that only officially approved religious scholars would be allowed to issue fatwas is a step in the continuing efforts of the state to assert its primacy over the country’s religious establishment.
Reform in Saudi Arabia remains the personal whim of King Abdullah and has not yet had an impact on institutions.
Women's rights have gained ground as a main focus for reform in Saudi Arabia, but advocates face a resistant religious establishment.
Recent appointments by Saudi King Abdullah are essential to implementing the 2007 judicial reforms, which are beginning to disentangle the judiciary from the executive branch.
Senior Saudi officials have announced recently that they will soon begin trying terrorism suspects held in connection with a series of major attacks that began in 2003. The use of the court system to battle extremism was not possible while the government perceived al-Qaeda as an existential threat; clearly it has now been downgraded to an internal security threat.