America’s insistence on maintaining its global supremacy has become a major topic of discussion among academics, journalists and even on social media. With Washington facing a rising China, is the US effort to sustain its hegemony a stabilising factor in international relations, or a destabilising one? More particularly, how does this relate to the situation in the Middle East?
Generally, the US has claimed to be a country that advances peace and security in the region, and therefore also stability. Yet on all these levels, Washington’s behaviour in the past two decades has come up well short of its rhetoric. The US has been selective in advancing peace, and the liberal values deriving from this; it has been unpredictable in providing security, and its actions have generally exacerbated instability.
The Israel-Gaza war is the most recent example undermining America's image of itself in these categories. The administration of President Joe Biden’s unwillingness to impose a ceasefire after 10 months of mass killing is proof alone of Washington’s duplicity. It purports to want a ceasefire, but has used none of its instruments of power to bring the conflict to an end. Indeed, US weapons have caused the horrific loss of life in Gaza, even as the Americans have done very little in recent decades to create an environment in which peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians could succeed.
Nor is Gaza just another Middle Eastern war. It comes at a time when the US is increasingly competing with a rising China, so the resentment Gaza has created is playing into this contest. Many states view the conflict as a window through which to challenge US global dominance, and the fact that the US is complicit in Gaza’s suffering has reinforced a view among several countries that such dominance must end.
The same holds for the values accompanying peace. If peace, in the US view, provides an ideal context to advance liberal, humanitarian principles, Washington’s perfunctory attempts at ending the war in Gaza reveal that its commitment to these principles is superficial.
What about security? The US presence in the Middle East has not really strengthened security at the regional level much. The Americans have provided security to some allies, but at a systemic level they haven’t. And even there the record is spotty. When Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil facility was hit by Iranian drones in 2019, the US did nothing, though protecting Saudi oil was a strategic constant of the US presence.
Some might argue that a major component of regional security is combating terrorism, which the US did successfully at the head of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. Perhaps, but this also laid the groundwork for much instability, as the US alliance with Kurdish forces against ISIS was and is regarded as an existential threat by Turkey.
At the same time, the US inability or unwillingness to develop any regional or international solution for ISIS prisoners and their family members has only produced an explosive situation that makes a revival of the organisation more likely.
Regional stability would be greatly enhanced if the US agreed to work with China – another major actor with an interest in such stability to guarantee the continued flow of oil for its economy. Yet the US priority is to limit China’s reach in the Middle East. The paradox is that the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement mediated by Beijing last year, for instance, helped to calm regional tensions. This led countries in the Middle East to look more positively at China's role, and, by contrast, more critically at America’s.
There is ambiguity in the US position that reveals a great deal about its intentions. Since the Obama administration, the US has indicated it does not want to maintain a paramount role in the Middle East. Yet at the same time, it does not look benignly on a larger Chinese role, nor does it want to see its myriad advantages challenged.
The US appears to have no overriding strategy to iron out the incongruities
This uncertainty is confusing, and harms justifications for US actions in the region. In wanting to preserve its supremacy (and therefore that of allies such as Israel), the US has made the region more volatile and far less peaceful. In imposing its own security priorities, Washington has clashed with other states who have security priorities of their own. And in opposing China’s rise, the Americans have forsaken a potentially valuable collaboration that could defuse regional hostilities.
Certainly, the Americans are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. Backing one ally, Israel, may lead to instability, while failing to back another, Saudi Arabia, may, equally, have generated instability. The problem is that the US appears to have no overriding strategy to iron out the incongruities. To a great extent this stems from the fact that Washington resists rethinking its pre-eminence in the Middle East.
Sooner or later, the Americans will realise that just as decades ago a detente with the Soviet Union helped appease global antagonism, some form of acceptance of China’s role will be necessary to do the same in the future. This is especially true in the Middle East, where the Chinese, even more than the Americans, have little interest in new wars and where both countries have the capacity to resolve conflicts by acting in unison.
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The struggle is on for active managers
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
The Outsider
Stephen King, Penguin
RACE CARD
6.30pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 Group 1 (PA) Dh119,373 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.05pm Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (D) 1,200m
7.40pm Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (Turf) 1,800m
8.15pm UAE 1000 Guineas Trial (TB) Dh183,650 (D) 1,400m
9.50pm Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,000m
The Book of Collateral Damage
Sinan Antoon
(Yale University Press)
57%20Seconds
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Mobile phone packages comparison
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
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Sui Dhaaga: Made in India
Director: Sharat Katariya
Starring: Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma, Raghubir Yadav
3.5/5
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
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Notable salonnières of the Middle East through history
Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)
Tamadir bint Amr Al Harith, known simply as Al Khasan, was a poet from Najd famed for elegies, earning great renown for the eulogy of her brothers Mu’awiyah and Sakhr, both killed in tribal wars. Although not a salonnière, this prestigious 7th century poet fostered a culture of literary criticism and could be found standing in the souq of Okaz and reciting her poetry, publicly pronouncing her views and inviting others to join in the debate on scholarship. She later converted to Islam.
Maryana Marrash (Aleppo)
A poet and writer, Marrash helped revive the tradition of the salon and was an active part of the Nadha movement, or Arab Renaissance. Born to an established family in Aleppo in Ottoman Syria in 1848, Marrash was educated at missionary schools in Aleppo and Beirut at a time when many women did not receive an education. After touring Europe, she began to host salons where writers played chess and cards, competed in the art of poetry, and discussed literature and politics. An accomplished singer and canon player, music and dancing were a part of these evenings.
Princess Nazil Fadil (Cairo)
Princess Nazil Fadil gathered religious, literary and political elite together at her Cairo palace, although she stopped short of inviting women. The princess, a niece of Khedive Ismail, believed that Egypt’s situation could only be solved through education and she donated her own property to help fund the first modern Egyptian University in Cairo.
Mayy Ziyadah (Cairo)
Ziyadah was the first to entertain both men and women at her Cairo salon, founded in 1913. The writer, poet, public speaker and critic, her writing explored language, religious identity, language, nationalism and hierarchy. Born in Nazareth, Palestine, to a Lebanese father and Palestinian mother, her salon was open to different social classes and earned comparisons with souq of where Al Khansa herself once recited.
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
What is the Supreme Petroleum Council?
The Abu Dhabi Supreme Petroleum Council was established in 1988 and is the highest governing body in Abu Dhabi’s oil and gas industry. The council formulates, oversees and executes the emirate’s petroleum-related policies. It also approves the allocation of capital spending across state-owned Adnoc’s upstream, downstream and midstream operations and functions as the company’s board of directors. The SPC’s mandate is also required for auctioning oil and gas concessions in Abu Dhabi and for awarding blocks to international oil companies. The council is chaired by Sheikh Khalifa, the President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi while Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, is the vice chairman.
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
Dubai World Cup prize money
Group 1 (Purebred Arabian) 2000m Dubai Kahayla Classic - $750,000
Group 2 1,600m(Dirt) Godolphin Mile - $750,000
Group 2 3,200m (Turf) Dubai Gold Cup – $750,000
Group 1 1,200m (Turf) Al Quoz Sprint – $1,000,000
Group 2 1,900m(Dirt) UAE Derby – $750,000
Group 1 1,200m (Dirt) Dubai Golden Shaheen – $1,500,000
Group 1 1,800m (Turf) Dubai Turf – $4,000,000
Group 1 2,410m (Turf) Dubai Sheema Classic – $5,000,000
Group 1 2,000m (Dirt) Dubai World Cup– $12,000,000
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The years Ramadan fell in May
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
