Artificial Humanitarianism—The Data-Driven Future of Refugee Responses
In Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp, to pay for food at one of the World Food Programme (WFP)’s distribution centers, Syrian refugees must lean into an iris scanner that registers their biometrics. The scanner then logs their transaction onto the program’s blockchain...Hanging by a Thread—The Red Sea Blockade and Jordan’s Fragile Garment Industry
Houthi attacks have revealed an industrial paradox.
Power Struggles—Energy as a Weapon of War, Domination and Resistance in Palestine
The role of the grid in Israel’s colonial domination.
Dispatch from South Lebanon—Life as Resistance at the End of the World
A look at land, and life, on Lebanon’s frontlines.
Yemen’s Ansar Allah
On the Houthi movement’s roots, governance and resistance.
Iran, Palestine and the Axis of Resistance
Tehran’s meydan-e Felestin—Palestine Square—is a historic site when it comes to the country’s relations with Israel and Palestine. Before the 1979 revolution, it hosted Israel’s embassy and went by a different name: Kakh (Palace) Square. In February of...The End of the Axis of Resistance?
Analysts have been quick to view the swift collapse of Bashar al-Asad’s regime in Syria as a fatal and final blow to the so-called Axis of Resistance: the network of Iranian proxies spanning from Lebanon to Yemen. But such premature post-mortems underestimate what the...Joseph (Joe) Stork—A Tribute
For much of the first 25 years of his professional life, Joe Stork and MERIP (the Middle East Research and Information Project) were virtual synonyms. He co-founded the organization in 1970 and dedicated himself to its development until he stepped down in 1995. He...Cairo’s Incarcerated Geographies
In 2015, the Egyptian government announced a series of urban development plans, a schema that included having a city free of slums. As part of this plan, the state implemented a policy to relocate residents of so-called unsafe areas to new neighborhoods and redevelop...Cell Phones Behind Bars in Lebanon
Exploring a new era of prison communication.
Israel Is Waging War on Palestinian Prisoners
Behind the systematic torture and sexual violence in Israeli prisons.
Resisting Carceralism and Fighting for Freedom—A Roundtable
Four activists reflect on building a global anti-carceral movement.
Speculative Climate Futures in Arab Literature
There is a fixity to the boundaries of genre fiction in English, enforced within publishing as within scholarship, that is largely absent in Arabic. While Anglophone publishing is intensely concerned with comparative titles and where a novel fits into the landscape,...Energy Politics and Africanfuturism—A Conversation with Nnedi Okorafor
Nnedi Okorafor is an award-winning writer of science fiction and fantasy for adults and youth. Her latest work is Akata Woman (Penguin, 2023), an Africanfuturist novel that follows her previous work, Noor (Penguin, 2022). Noor features the protagonist AO, whose...Decolonial Ecologies and ‘Low-intensity War’ in Kurdistan
On my return to Diyarbakır in the Kurdish region of Turkey, also known as Amed (Northern Kurdistan) in the winter of 2024, I found a post-siege city, in which the conversion of the old Christian district of Sur into an open-air shopping mall was partially complete....Routes to Disruption—Supply Chain Sabotage and Israel’s War on Gaza
Since October 7, at least three shipments of military-grade jet fuel (JP-8) have reached Israel from the United States, powering the fighter jets and Apache helicopters that have, for more than nine months now, continued to decimate Gaza. Each shipment carried 30,000...Extractive Agribusinesses—Guaranteeing Food Security in the Gulf
The 2022 Food and Agriculture Organization report on food security and nutrition in the Arab region makes for bleak reading. Between 2014 and 2021, the total number of Arabs suffering from moderate to severe food insecurity increased from 120 million to 154...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.
