Backgammon
A board game played in smoky cafes from Beirut to Baghdad. Backgammon’s earliest ancestor is five thousand years old and was unearthed in southern Iraq. Modern-day descendants teach players survival skills beyond the game: although luck is involved, strategy wins out in the long run. ‘Backgammon’ covers the state of play in the countries spanning the Fertile Crescent: Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Iraq.
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Tuesday, 21 May, 2013
In the past two years, Western media coverage has focused on the growing popularity of Salafist jihadi groups like the Al-Nusra Front (Jabhat Al-Nusra) in Syria. These groups have become both an argument to intervene militarily, as well as a reason to stay out. While this fear has some basis—especially as Al-Qaeda has purportedly announced links with the Al-Nusra Front—it is also colored by post-9/11 counter-insurgency narratives. This has prevented policy makers from situating groups like J...
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Tuesday, 14 May, 2013
The contending Lebanese factions have taken their fight from the streets of Beirut and Tripoli to those of Damascus and Homs. Yet, battling it out elsewhere does not mean that Lebanon is sailing toward stability or prosperity. Lebanon's leaders continue to enjoy their fiery statements, often attacking each other and taking opposing sides on all issues, both domestic and regional. This infighting does little to alleviate Lebanon’s many political impasses, such as forming a new cabinet after the...
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Tuesday, 7 May, 2013
Jordan has tried to maintain a neutral position since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution—at least publicly. Its fear is that should Bashar Al-Assad weather the uprising, his g...
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Tuesday, 30 Apr, 2013
Exactly a decade after the US invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, sectarian tensions are again threatening to turn back the clock in Iraq. The trigger this time was the storming o...
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Tuesday, 23 Apr, 2013
Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim is all thumbs navigating his way around his new iPhone. This modern device contrasts sharply with the traditional cassock he is wearing, ...
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Friday, 29 Mar, 2013
The Atlantic magazine’s recent profile of Jordan’s King Abdullah has embarrassed the royal court and unleashed a wave of criticism against the monarchy. Despite the embarra...
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Monday, 25 Mar, 2013
As we enter the third year of the popular uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, areas across Syria, including neighborhoods in its three largest cities, lie in rui...
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Monday, 18 Mar, 2013
Flying into the city of Suleimaniyah with a hundred-strong international delegation of politicians, diplomats and academics one was greeted by a gentle breeze signalling the ar...
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Tuesday, 5 Mar, 2013
You will not see Ahmad in a television report, trapped in a war zone that used to be his home. He is not among the refugees escaping Syria for a new hell in the camps. Ahmad is...
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Saturday, 2 Mar, 2013
Wedding bells are ringing out for change in Lebanon. On November 10, 2012, Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish became the first couple in Lebanon to tie the knot by way of civ...
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