Tanker Blasts in the Gulf of Oman Escalate Tensions Between U.S. and Iran
Bottom Line Up Front On June 13, two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman were damaged by apparent sabotage, as explosions ripped through […] More
UAE
The Risks of Civil War in Sudan
Bottom Line Up Front Civilian pro-democracy protesters were gunned down on Monday by Sudanese security forces in Khartoum, the country’s capital. According to various […] More
Designating The Muslim Brotherhood Will Yield Few Benefits
Bottom Line Up Front The Trump administration is reportedly considering designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO). Given the history of […] More
Signs of Redemption Amidst Arab Political Upheavals
The anti-regime convulsions currently underway in Algeria and Sudan are the latest version of an “Arab Spring” that erupted in 2011 and that Arab autocrats […] More
Project Raven Raises Big Concerns
It’s difficult to feel anything other than disappointment after reading Reuter’s investigation of activities by a U.S. contractor in the UAE. The allegations that former NSA […] More
What Awaits Yemen After Hodeida?
In the second part of a Cipher Brief two-part series on the significant implications of the battle for Hodeida, Cipher Brief Expert Norm Roule, who […] More
View: Despite Gulf Crisis over Qatar, GCC Pushes Ahead
The failure of the recent Gulf Cooperation Council 2017 summit to resolve the six-month long crisis that pits Qatar against Saudi Arabia, the United Arab […] More
UAE’s Share of the Task Fighting al Qaeda in Yemen
The U.S. and its Gulf allies have clawed back Yemeni territory from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has exploited the Yemeni conflict […] More
With No End In Sight, Gulf Blockade Nudges Qatar Closer to Iran
Nearly five months on, the “crisis” between Qatar and a coalition of nine countries led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has reached […] More
Information Warfare and the Gulf Dispute
The use of cyber capabilities to influence geopolitical confrontations has become more and more common. Even those countries who are not major global powers are […] More
UAE Hacking Allegation Roils Regional Crisis
More mixed signals have emerged on the rift between Qatar and some of its Arab neighbors, as a new report citing U.S. intelligence officials says […] More
Qatar Crisis: Worst Case Scenarios
The crisis between an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on one side, and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council member Qatar […] More
U.S. Fails to Unscramble Mixed Messages on Qatar-Saudi Dispute
Two weeks have passed since I wrote the column about the Saudi-Qatar split, and as of today the Trump administration seems still unable to get […] More
Cross-border Cooperation: A Game-Changer for Gulf Cybersecurity
Recent years have witnessed a series of increasingly audacious and unprecedented cyber attacks, leading up to the recent accusations of Russian hacking throughout last year’s […] More