OPINION

By Hicham Bou Nassif | Weinberg Associate Professor of International Relations and the Middle East and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College-California A central contradiction permeates our national life. Since the establishment of the Lebanese Republic, no force has been more determined to thwart its evolution into a true…

By Denho Bar Mourad-Özmen | Former Special Educator and Advisor at Sweden’s National Agency for Special Education In a world where globalization and migration blur borders, it is not only territories that disappear—but also languages. Today, many minority languages teeter on the brink of extinction, especially those whose speakers have…

By Hicham Bou Nassif | Weinberg Associate Professor of International Relations and the Middle East and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College-California A few days ago, U.S. Congressman Marlin Stutzman revealed details of his conversations with Syrian leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, during which Al-Sharaa expressed interest in joining the Abraham Accords —the…

By Suphi Aksoy A great disaster befell Mesopotamia and Anatolia 110 years ago. This widespread calamity, known in the history of the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean), Armenian, and Pontic Greek peoples as the Genocide of 1915, stands as one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Middle East. Throughout human…

By Hicham Bou Nassif |Weinberg Associate Professor of International Relations and the Middle East and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College-California Rafiq Nasrallah’s recent interview is worthy of attention. Not because the person is significant in Lebanon’s political equation — he is nothing more than another parliamentary hopeful…

By Hicham Bou Nassif | Weinberg Associate Professor of International Relations and the Middle East and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College-California The Lebanese Civil War erupted in 1975 as a convergence of internal and external factors unleashed a cycle of sectarian violence that lasted until 1990. Internally, the…

By Hicham Bou Nassif | Weinberg Associate Professor of International Relations and the Middle East and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College-California The recent plunge in US stock markets, triggered by President Donald Trump’s unprecedented tariffs on imported goods, has turned into an economic disaster. The worst fallout is…

By Abhlahad Saka Bartiloyo The Syriac Churches across the East have historically experienced and continue to endure divisions and conflicts, existing in isolation from one another despite their geographical proximity in villages, towns, cities, and neighboring countries. This estrangement has exacerbated tensions, deepened divisions, fueled discord, and multiplied crises. As…

By Hicham Bou Nassif | Weinberg Associate Professor of International Relations and the Middle East and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College-California The repeated statements of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam about his government’s commitment to oath of office and implementing international decisions that mandate the restriction of arms in…

By Joseph Sliwa | President of the Beth Nahrain Patriotic Union and former Member of Iraqi Parliament There is no doubt that one of the definitions of a modern state is a geographically defined territory with diverse topographical features — rivers, seas, mountains, plains, etc. — where various human groups coexist,…