It was a hot day in August 1990 when my cousins arrived from Kuwait. They had been made refugees due to Saddam Hussein’s forces’ invasion of their homeland. There was the kind Rasha, who was around my age, her older sister, the confident Alaa, and the innocent Mohamed Saad, who quickly became the closest to me. I ended […]

HE Dr Oleksandr Balanutsa, Ambassador of Ukraine to the UAE, discusses the UAE-Ukraine Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

HE Rawan Tawfeeqi, the Kingdom of Bahrain’s Minister of Youth Affairs, discusses Bahrain’s commitment to having long-term youth policy frameworks that align with global priorities.

In a scale unprecedented since the Gulf War of 1990, the recent hostilities between the United States (US), Israel, and Iran have undermined the confidence and security of each and every Arab Gulf state. It may have been Israel and the US that started the war, but it was the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states who served as […]

Rather than solely a cessation of hostilities between Iran and the United States (US), the two-week ceasefire between the two parties, brokered by Pakistan, is an attempt to establish a framework for mediating a wide range of issues in the Middle East. Since its declaration, however, it has been extended, continuously contested, and brought close to collapse. Tehran and […]

Iran’s attacks against Gulf states, including threats to civilians and civilian infrastructure, must be condemned clearly and without hesitation. No country should have to  live under the shadow of missile and drone attacks targeting its sovereignty, its people, or the systems that sustain daily life. Estonia quickly and unequivocally condemned Iran’s inexcusable attacks. It stands in […]

While the West flourished post-Second World War, the Global South faced marginalization. Today, the international order is undergoing a realignment of power. More nations are standing against hegemony, and what once seemed permanent is shifting into a new reality: the rise of multipolar cooperation, a stronger voice from the Global South, and the recognition that the world’s future cannot rest in the hands of a single power.

Afaf Zurayk is one of the last figures of a generation of prominent Lebanese women artists who emerged in the 1960s–70s, when Beirut was an epicenter of art and creativity. Zurayk’s work and the artist’s life is a testament to resilience and the power of art in the face of adversity.

In 1938, Australian writer Alan Villiers traveled to the Gulf to document what he believed to be the last days of Arab sailing traditions. The neglect of Villiers’ account in academic research highlights how the Gulf’s cultural isolation is related to a deeper Orientalist structure of thought that overlooks the sea in its portrayal of the Arabian Peninsula. This Essay examines the legacies of Villiers’ work in the early history of Kuwaiti cinema and its preoccupation with the sea, pearl-diving, and pre-oil economic class distinctions to show what gives the seas such an allure in Kuwaiti film and literature.

The US is not simply withdrawing from multilateralism, it is increasingly bargaining through absence. It is re-pricing cooperation, reducing external constraints, and renegotiating the terms of global governance. Washington’s recent behavior toward multilateral institutions is not an episodic withdrawal, it constitutes a strategic repertoire used to renegotiate the terms of international cooperation.

With the paralysis of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), stakeholders in the international community are increasingly looking to economic, legal, and coalition-based alternatives. As the current global order undergoes a major transition, substantial UNSC reforms are necessary to remain relevant and to avoid further fragmentation in the international system.

Libyan artist Asmahan Elfergani’s work is largely absent from the formal record of art history, but she is remembered in oral histories and private collections. This Essay seeks to establish a preliminary biography of the artist and her work as it endures through homes, conversations, and the quiet persistence of remembrance.

Pan-Africanist ideals came to fruition circa 1860, paving the way for the development of the African Union (AU). This Explainer discusses the Union’s successes, the reasons for its shortcomings, and ways to advance in its future progression.

How has BRICS fared against predictions made in the early 2000s about its far-reaching potential? This Explainer discusses the evolution of BRICS from the late 1990s to this day, and explores its role as an alternative multilateral economic arrangement through its current initiatives.

The decolonization processes in the 20th century introduced a range of governance models between imperial metropoles and their former colonies, which challenge a strict interpretation of political autonomy and independence in international relations.

The nuclear non-proliferation regime has evolved from a patchwork of agreements into an important architecture of nuclear restraint globally. Yet, the regime now faces some formidable challenges. Deep structural fractures, including inequality, the disarmament deficit, and the tolerance of nuclear latency, are compounding threats of geopolitical rivalry, lack of universality, and the challenge of new disruptive technologies.

In November 2025, Brazil will host COP30, the annual UN climate conference. International climate governance has witnessed uneven progress in recent years, with North-South tensions and geopolitical instability threatening vital action against deteriorating climate conditions. What can we expect from Brazil’s COP and how does the summit highlight deeper problems in global climate governance?

Established in 1961, the NAM was birthed out of a decolonial group consciousness based on collective coordination for national self-determination against colonialism and imperialism. What factors within its evolution contributed to the hindering of its legitimacy, power, and relevance on a global scale?

For much of the 20th century, Arab oil-exporting states were defined as rentier economies, where a small percentage of the population – often just 2-3% – was involved in producing wealth that accounted for up to 80% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).1 According to modern interpretations of Adam Smith’s rentier theory, state revenue in such […]

The global development landscape is undergoing a profound shift, marked by the retreat of traditional Western aid and the emergence of new philanthropic actors. Among these, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are becoming increasingly influential, leveraging their financial capacity and geopolitical capital to reshape development and aid paradigms. Once peripheral to mainstream global development discourse, GCC nations are now positioned […]

To state that the governance of multilateral trade, centered at the World Trade Organization (WTO), is at a crossroads is to understate the obvious. While current geoeconomics play a large role, as exemplified by US President Trump’s tariff policies, the causes are varied and of longer standing than simply current events. An increasingly complex trade […]

In the early weeks after the US-Iran escalation around the Strait of Hormuz, the crisis was narrated through a familiar vocabulary of oil flows, gas markets, tanker movements, price volatility, and insurance risk. The language was immediate, recognizable, and not wrong. Energy is the first lens through which the world understands the Gulf. Yet the region’s modern resource system […]

Through its curriculum, a society transmits its memory, shapes collective identity, and prepares the next generation not only to work but to think. Beyond domestic social policy, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries should view education as an instrument of soft power: a means to shape preferences through attraction rather than coercion.1 What happens in […]

The current war on Iran has exposed structural vulnerabilities in the United States (US)-Gulf security alliance. This is exemplified by the basing paradox: the hosting of US forces increases deterrence while simultaneously elevating exposure to retaliation. Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US regional assets and Gulf infrastructure have drawn Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states into the conflict, demonstrating how forward […]

Fiker Institute hosted Sarah El-Abd, PhD candidate in political science and international relations at Sciences Po, Paris for a lecture on competing approaches in humanitarian policies, exploring how a single institutional ecosystem engages with multiple humanitarian and political mandates.

Fiker Institute’s Working Group on Gulf Foreign Policy held its second meeting and discussed the implications of the ceasefire announcements and the ongoing Strait of Hormuz crisis.

As part of its Al-Khaleej Program, Fiker Institute launched the Working Group on Gulf Foreign Policy in March 2026 in response to the ongoing Iran War. The Group seeks to establish a coordination mechanism that convenes expert voices from the six GCC countries to exchange views on the current developments and the future policy trajectories of the GCC states. 

Fiker Institute’s Working Group on Gulf Foreign Policy held its fourth meeting and discussed the announcement of MOU between Iran and the US and its implication for regional security.

The Syllabus of Proposed Works is a non-exhaustive list of novels, plays, academic articles, podcast episodes, films, and visual artworks that speak to ongoing debates of identity and conflict as they relate to Arab Gulf states. It is designed to encourage dialogue and facilitate critical discourse in the context of ongoing developments in the region. […]

Fiker Institute’s Working Group on Gulf Foreign Policy held its third meeting and discussed prospects for a negotiated settlement of the crisis.