IN THIS ISSUE:
Off the Grid—Why Solar Won’t Solve Lebanon’s Electricity Crisis
Incorporating renewables into the country’s beleaguered energy sector.
Fossil Fueled Comfort—The History and Cost of Air Conditioning in Bahrain
How AC has reshaped the urban landscape and labor politics of the Gulf.
Desert Solar—A Spectacular Fiction, Not a Spectacular Future
On the visual power, and pitfalls, of solar mega projects.
Laundering Carbon—The Gulf’s ‘New Scramble for Africa’
Carbon offsets are changing the relationship between the Middle East and the African continent.
CURRENT ANALYSIS
![Speculative Climate Futures in Arab Literature](https://merip.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Marcia-Lynx-Qualey-Book-Review-Essay-250x167.png)
Speculative Climate Futures in Arab Literature
From beautiful dystopias to experimental graphic novels, how authors in the region are tackling climate change.
![A Deadly Trade—Refugee Labor in Turkey and Europe’s Plastic Waste](https://merip.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/GettyImages-1236575935-250x167.jpg)
A Deadly Trade—Refugee Labor in Turkey and Europe’s Plastic Waste
China’s ban on plastic waste imports and EU efforts to curb migration have converged in Turkey, enabling a dangerous industry.
![Beirut and the Birth of the Fortress Embassy](https://merip.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/NewBeirutUSembassy_3jpg-250x188.jpg)
Beirut and the Birth of the Fortress Embassy
A deep dive into the local, regional and global politics behind the sprawling new US embassy complex in Beirut.
LATEST ISSUES
FEATURED PRIMER
![SUDAN-UNREST-POLITICS-DEMO](https://merip.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1136486670-scaled-e1713226835827.jpg)
Primer: The Struggle for Sudan
One year into the counterrevolutionary war in Sudan, MERIP offers this new primer on the conflict from Khalid Mustafa Medani as part of Issue 310. This primer is meant as an introduction to the basic dynamics of the political landscape in Sudan since the 2019 revolution that overthrew the autocratic Omar al-Bashir, and lays out the challenges facing organizers, aid workers, and activists in the midst of the war.