Open Dialogue Research Journal
The sharp rise in tensions between the United States and Iran in early 2026 has once again pushed the Middle East to the edge of a major conflict. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned of a possible “regional war”, the United States has deployed a powerful aircraft carrier […]
When phase two of the Gaza ceasefire was announced in mid-January, it was framed as a tentative but historic transition: from raw military devastation toward governance, reconstruction, and the possibility of a post-war political order. At the heart of this phase stood the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza […]
An Invasion is Unlikely The Trump administration has fundamentally changed direction on Iran. US NATO Ambassador Matt Whitaker says the US will not try and force regime change in Iran, suggesting that “we don’t want another Libya scenario.” Whitaker says “We’re not asking for much, just stop killing your people […]
Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, all of which have been Iran’s “frenemies” since 1979 and whose military-strategic interests are increasingly converging, are expected to exploit any large-scale instability that could follow another potential round of US strikes if Trump changes his mind. The Wall Street Journal recently published a […]
Israel is preparing to start construction next month on a bypass road through the heart of the occupied West Bank, a move critics say will further fragment Palestinian territory and entrench the de facto annexation of an area vital to the viability of a future Palestinian state. The bypass is […]
After months of skirmishes and mutual accusations, the militants, formally structured into the Syrian armed forces and the Kurdish militia in the northeast of the country (Rojava region by the Kurdish definition), known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, turned to intense fighting that happened last weekend. Pretty quickly, the Kurds […]
Part I Regional backers (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey) moved quickly to lobby for sanctions relief, portraying the new Syrian authorities as pragmatic partners. Washington, however, adopted a more transactional approach. Rather than offering relief as a reward for regime change, the United States sought to make Damascus “earn” normalization. […]
Donald Trump’s Board of Peace overseeing the reconstruction of Gaza was always going to raise a host of niggling questions. From the outset, the US President made it clear he would be the helmsman of what was essentially an outfit of selected corporate overseers tilling the soil for The Donald’s […]
What matters peace if it permits killing, maiming and destroying the infrastructure of a society supposedly once at war? This is the situation facing Gaza as the occupying Israeli forces go about their business making the Strip even more uninhabitable for the Palestinian residents, ensuring that that land will be […]
International law likes to speak about principles, but it prefers silence when those principles are violated by the very power that claims authorship over them. The recent episode involving Venezuela has become yet another illustration of this long-standing reality: in a world governed by the “rule of the strong,” norms […]
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