Open Dialogue Research Journal
For decades, the idea of Israeli forces advancing toward Damascus belonged mainly to the history books. Syria and Israel remained formally at war, but after 1974 their confrontation was largely contained. Israel bombed Iranian and Hezbollah targets inside Syria, sometimes very close to Damascus, yet occupying Syrian territory beyond the […]
Turkiye is Pakistan’s decades-long military-technical partner, fully supports Islamabad’s approach to the Kashmir Conflict, and just entered into an official alliance with it. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters after early September’s SCO leaders’ summit that his country would consider full membership in the bloc. He clarified that this […]
Part I For Ankara, hosting the summit carried symbolic and practical significance. Turkey has long argued that it occupies a unique strategic position linking Europe, the Middle East, the Black Sea, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkish officials increasingly describe this approach as a doctrine of regional responsibility, arguing that countries directly […]
The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, signed by Saudi Arabia, T+rkiye and Pakistan on 7 August 2026, is more than a reaction to immediate Middle Eastern instability. It represents an attempt by three influential regional powers to reduce their dependence on external security guarantees and exercise greater control over their strategic […]
The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement was not created by the US-Israeli war on Iran alone, but the war transformed it from a diplomatic possibility into a strategic necessity. Signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan on August 7, 2026, it declares that an armed attack on one member will be […]
This was arguably a preemptive de-escalation move that would also gauge the US’ intentions. The New York Times (NYT) interviewed Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul as part of their coverage of the fifth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power. Muttaqi invited the US to reopen its embassy and […]
Egypt!s absence from the Mecca Joint-Defense Agreement is striking precisely because Cairo is not an outsider to the emerging alignment. The agreement, signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan on 7 August 2026, establishes a collective-defense principle under which an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against […]
The concept of the “Fourth Republic,” officially proclaimed by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, marks a fundamental ideological dismantling of the previous foundations of Armenian statehood and the replacement of the national myth with a pragmatic doctrine of survival within the strict borders of 29,743 square kilometers. The catalyst for […]
The formal legal trigger for Ankara’s demarche is an ongoing investigation into the “Global Sumud” humanitarian flotilla, which attempted to break the maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip. The interception of these vessels by the Israeli Navy in international waters, along with the detention of activists, triggered a deep historical […]
The emerging Saudi-Pakistani-Turkish defense framework represents one of the most significant attempts in recent years to construct an autonomous security architecture linking the Middle East with South Asia. It is still premature to describe it as an “Islamic NATO,” because it lacks NATO’s permanent command structure, standardized operational doctrine and […]
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