Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar have increased their geopolitical influence in the Middle East in the last decade. In the case of Syria, the foreign policy of Gulf monarchies the past years has been on of rapprochement towards the regime of Damascus after initially opposing it firmly and funding some armed opposition groups. This article analyzes the potential economic and political implications of the return of Gulf investments in Syria. It argues that Gulf investments would have consequences on the political economy of Syria by deepening its reliance on projects in short-term profit-seeking sectors, mostly in trade, real estate and services. At the same time, significant obstacles to Gulf investments in Syria will persist.

Facing the ashes of an economic model based on sectarianism and cronyism, Lebanon currently endures a perfect storm of overlapping financial, economic, and political crises. Since its inauguration on January 31, 2020, the technocratic government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, aided by international advisors, elaborated an “economic rescue plan” to explore options for recovery. Leaked […]

Original Cartoon by Drew Madson. See more of his illustrations here. Instagram @drew1drew2drewyou   Back in 2007, I was holidaying in Iran with a Danish friend. This was a few months after the Cartoon Crisis where the Danish satirist Kurt Westergaard drew the prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. To put it mildly, it didn’t go down […]

Students with disabilities were already on unequal footing before COVID-19. Now, the pandemic is putting their civil rights at risk. The $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill grants Education Secretary Betsy DeVos the authority to ask Congress to waive key protections for special education students afforded by the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), the federal education […]

As countries across the world struggle to contain and mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Iran’s battle with the virus has been compounded by the lack of access to adequate medical supplies imposed by the U.S. government’s crippling sanctions on the country. Iran is amongst the countries most impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19. As of […]

Celebrating individual merit is a core feature at the Kennedy School. We have fellowships, while other schools have need-based financial aid. We split our buildings into parts and name them after elite benefactors. This pandemic calls on us to put that spirit of meritocratic competition aside. Unless necessary to fulfill a specific requirement for a […]

The history of Italian cuisine spans centuries and cultures: from Greek to Roman, Byzantine to Jewish, past to present. This diversity is reflected in the richness of the regional Italian cuisines, which are handed down from generation to generation. The foundation of Italian cuisine is the use of fresh, high quality products. In fact, many […]

Renowned sociologist Dana R. Fisher studies political movements for a living. She has analyzed and surveyed protesters in every major modern U.S. movement, including the 2017 Women’s March, and the 2017 March for Science. In her latest book, American Resistance: From the Women’s March to the Blue Wave, Dr. Fisher explores the 2016 election cycle […]

In 2016, I was working at a UNHCR clinic in a refugee camp in South Beirut, Lebanon as a medical assistant. I remember throwing out suitcases full of donated medications, which were all outdated, or otherwise uselessbecause they were not addressing the health problems that we were seeing in the population. What good is a […]

A former Minister of State, a well-recognized journalist, and a political scientist with a large Twitter following walk into a bar. They’ve just finished speaking at the Harvard India Conference and now sip whiskey and laugh boisterously at the Charles Hotel. The student organisers who invited them to discuss India’s pressing public issues have raised […]

While international students are chasing their dreams at colleges across the nation, visa requirements are forcing their spouses to put theirs on hold. It’s 2:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. At a bustling café in Cambridge, a group is sipping coffee, sharing cakes – and discussing strategies to stay busy. They’re not retirees (their […]

Every year, we throw away about one-third of the world’s food. This is the equivalent of USD 936 billion, more than the Netherlands’ entire GDP.1 Most of this food is dumped in landfills where it decomposes and produces greenhouse gases (GHG). In 2010, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that about 3 percent […]