Eight years after the American-led invasion of Iraq, the country’s business climate seems to finally be showing some substantive improvements. Granted, the essential quality for the country to re-emerge as…
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The drastic changes in Egypt, and the unrest throughout the region, have left Israel with a new sense of strategic vulnerability. Though the Egyptian military says that Cairo…
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In praise of free trade, 19th century British politician Richard Cobden described it as “God’s Diplomacy,” bringing people together to prosper. Taking a page from his book, the United States…
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What do former American President Bill Clinton and the new Miss USA Rima Fakih have in common? Jokes about Clinton’s notorious womanizing aside, rather a lot, actually: Rima is a…
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Iran and Turkey’s respective economic involvement in the Middle East continues to grow, but as is so often the case in our region, business is becoming mixed up with politics.…
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The economy of the eastern Mediterranean went from being a unified whole under the Ottomans 100 years ago to increasing fragmentation in the Twentieth Century. This trend was especially…
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The view from the Swiss hotel where I found myself this winter was wet indeed. Both the falling rain and the sight of Lake Leman a few meters away focused…
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Iraqi Kurdistan’s continued over-reliance on oil wealth helps the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) dominate employment in the province by creating large numbers of unproductive city-based public sector jobs. Not diversifying…
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Migrant labor has become part of economic life in a globalizing Middle East, with countries increasingly dependent on workers hailing from across borders and often from outside the region. Yet,…
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A year after the global financial crisis erupted, is it business as usual for banks in the Middle East? Their counterparts in the West have been battered and otherwise have…
