The Future of US-Iranian Negotiations
Charles Chartouni 26/05 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
The finalization of negotiations between Iran and the United States is unending guesswork. What are the benchmarks that we should enlist if we were to track the evolution of the process, and is there any deadline that we may expect down the road? Unfortunately, none of these questions is likely to be answered since the Iranian agenda is shifting ...
Jailbreaking
Charles Chartouni 19/05 09:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Donald Trump Gulf Hamas Hezbollah Israel
The proactive diplomacy of President Donald Trump is proceeding steadily on multiple fronts. The very fact that he is moving on multiple fronts and breaking the taboos that have hobbled international political life is a good omen. The sanctioning tariffs seem to open up the fray for negotiations on the outside and for renewed investment dynamics ...
Papal Election and Contemporary Challenges
Charles Chartouni 12/05 09:00 - Reading : 7 minute(s)
The election of Robert Francis Prevost as bishop of Rome is a powerful indicator of the Catholic Church's ability to reform its bi-millennial odyssey and reinterpret its ecclesiology to make it adjust to the challenges of contemporary ministries in a global world. The changing of the theological and ecclesiological paradigms is a Church ...
Syria: Ethno-National Imbroglios and State Formation
Charles Chartouni 05/05 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
The recent clashes between the Syrian Druze community and the newly formed government in Damascus betray the inconsistencies of the current transition in Syria and its pitfalls. However positive the ongoing political evolutions in Syria are, they are still thwarted by major ideological and strategic hurdles that have prevented the actual ...
Geopolitical Variations and Political Challenges
Charles Chartouni 28/04 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Pope Francis Donald Trump Hezbollah Middle East Iran Israel
The past week was replete with events that cannot be overlooked if we are to address critical conflicts around the world: the death of Pope Francis and its reverberations ; the evolutions of the Ukraine war ; the ultimate scope of the US-Iranian negotiations; the shifting facades of Turkey’s Islamic authoritarianism; and the normalization ...
Iran and the Unresolved Dilemmas
Charles Chartouni 21/04 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Political observers are taken aback while trying to make sense of the Iranian regime's shifting postures. The first striking features are the ostensible cleavages among the Iranian concentric circles of power: moderates are deliberately engaging in the negotiations, while extremists are still jockeying. The second feature relates to the substance ...
Lebanon: The Staggering Transition
Charles Chartouni 14/04 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon United States Syria Hezbollah Israel
Foreign observers wonder why the transition seems to be so awkward at a time when the proper conditions for an orderly political change are in place. Far from being accidental, these botched opportunities are ascribed to systemic factors related to undermined national legitimacy, curtailed sovereignty, dysfunctional governance, and regional ...
Political Fraud and the Bungled Peace
Charles Chartouni 07/04 09:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Monitoring the Lebanese political scene is quite disturbing since the hypothetical new political era seems to be bungling. The new incumbents, who came into power incidentally, were unlikely to be co-opted if it were not for the military and political upheaval induced by the Israeli destruction of the operational platforms weaved by the Iranian ...
Irresponsibility Is the Name of the Game
Charles Chartouni 31/03 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon Syria Nawaf Salam Joseph Aoun
The repeated truce breakdowns and the rising state of violence at the borders with Syria call into question the ability of the Lebanese state to regain control of its borders and oversee the gradual stabilization of Lebanese territory. The equivocations of the new government betray its inconsistencies and incapacity to come up with an integrated ...
The 'Improbable Nation' and the Dysfunctional State
Charles Chartouni 24/03 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
The resumption of the reckless bombardment of Israeli territories from South Lebanon is a blatant violation of the internationally mandated truce stipulations and puts at stake the stability of Lebanon and its hypothetical national security. The tedious game of pinpointing the culprits is part of a hackneyed stratagem whose goal is to perpetuate ...
Questionable Transition
Charles Chartouni 17/03 09:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Lebanon is still dealing with the imponderables and equivocations of a very tentative peace process. The drama lies at the very heart of the transition process and the absence of a consensual approach to the problems besetting it. Initially, the ongoing actors have failed to acknowledge the nature of the transformative process and its strategic ...
The Weaponization of Ambiguity
Charles Chartouni 10/03 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
USA Russia Iran Israel Syria Lebanon
The international political scene is marred by uncertainties, and political actors are navigating their courses amidst the imbroglios of an unraveling world order. This state of endemic instability seems to promote the politics of ambiguity and their inherent weaponization. President Trump, with his conventional insinuations and intentional ...
The New Political Dynamics and Their Purview
Charles Chartouni 03/03 09:00 - Reading : 6 minute(s)
USA Donald Trump Ukraine Gaza Russia
The international political scene is changing, but its features are still fleeting and with no final configurations. The main driver is the new foreign policy orientations outlined by President Trump. Are we witnessing the end of the transatlantic partnership, the demise of NATO, the withering of the civilizational framing of the Western political ...
Shifting Paradigms and Policy-Making
Charles Chartouni 24/02 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
The cascading events that have resulted in the defeat of Iranian proxies in the Near East have not yet elicited the due questioning among political actors. The systematic dismantling of the power nodes that have structured the strategic continuum patiently woven by Iran throughout the last two decades should have impelled political actors to ...
The Regalian Function and the Poor Exercise of Power
Charles Chartouni 17/02 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
The new government of Lebanon was welcomed as symptomatic of a new era. Nonetheless, its shortcomings are obvious, and its inaugural performance is not a good omen. The political subtext is plainly contradictory, and its steering committee doesn’t seem to realize that its multiple inconsistencies are self-defeating. Surfing on the false idea of ...
The End of Iranian Hegemony and the Chances of Normalization
Charles Chartouni 10/02 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon Joseph Aoun Nawaf Salam Government USA
Undoubtedly, the progressive dismantling of Iran‘s proxies raises the issue of normalization in the Near East at a time when the questions of civil concord, democratic political culture, and reformist elites are still controversial and have failed to inspire massive commitments within the respective civil societies, however elaborate and ...
Mitigated or Stifled Transitions?
Charles Chartouni 03/02 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon Syria Gaza Iran Israel USA
The transitions in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza are still controversial, and their actors are undecided about their outcomes. Observers ask whether the various actors are genuinely interested in the transformative courses and to what extent. The newly set dynamics that have taken place throughout the Near East have not yet been relayed by steadier, ...
Solomonic Decisions
Charles Chartouni 27/01 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon Hezbollah Israel Ceasefire
The truce agreement is coming to an end, and nothing has been accomplished on the Lebanese side: delays in disarming, setting demarcation lines, and laying the groundwork for long-term strategic goals. The incendiary rhetoric of Hezbollah and its ideological humbug have returned to the foreground at a time when the newly established authorities ...
The Deferred Normalization
Charles Chartouni 20/01 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon Syria USA Gaza Ceasefire
The election of a president and the nomination of a new prime minister in Lebanon were good omens, but the process of political normalization doesn’t seem to be moving in the right direction. The ongoing negotiations in Gaza about the release of Israeli hostages and the swap of Palestinian prisoners are stumbling as well. The smooth transition ...
The Presidential Election and Its Aftermath
Charles Chartouni 13/01 09:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Presidency Joseph Aoun Parliament Election
Finally, the long-awaited presidential election has taken place after two and a half years of deliberate sabotaging and unjustified procrastinations. Whatever might have been the intricacies of the electoral process, the constitutional mandate would have never taken place if it were not for the changing dynamics elicited by the Israeli ...
Equivocations
Charles Chartouni 06/01 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Syria Lebanon Hezbollah Iran USA Israel
The situation in both Lebanon and Syria is still shrouded in ambiguities, deliberate equivocations, and malevolence. Nothing seems clear, and actors continue to operate in grey zones, let alone in the dark alleys that persist throughout.. The chances of negotiations and constructive engagement are quite narrow and are not part of the political ...
Chaos or Restructuring?
Charles Chartouni 2024-12-30 10:37 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
The regional landscape is far from reassuring; none of the political and military events have come to a closure, and none of the geostrategic and political issues have found a way to deliberation. The situation in Syria is under the pull and sway of strident political factionalism, clashing regional power politics and endemic instability. Lebanon ...
Lebanon and Syria, the Tangled Web
Charles Chartouni 2024-12-23 09:42 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Syria Lebanon Hezbollah Israel
The political evolutions in both countries are quite ambivalent since they usher in a new political era beset by the pitfalls and the dirty arcane of domestic and regional power politics. The downfall of Hezbollah and the Assad regime is dawning a new chapter in the life of both Lebanon and Syria, notwithstanding their societal and political ...
Syria’s Future and the Shifting Tectonics
Charles Chartouni 2024-12-16 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Syria’s political plight is at the crossroads between potential disintegration, renewed civil instabilities and eventual reconciliation, which helps overcome the bitter legacy of a long-haul civil war. The downfall of the Assad regime is of good omen since it sets an end to the excruciating travails bequeathed by a bloody dictatorship and its ...
The Debacle
Charles Chartouni 2024-12-09 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Syria Lebanon Bachar el-Assad Turkey
The meteoric downfall of the Alawite regime in Syria is symptomatic of the systemic changes taking place throughout the Middle Eastern geopolitical spectrum and its overall reverberations. However inchoate, the ongoing military and political dynamics are substantively overhauling the regional landscape. The inevitable demise of Iranian influence, ...
The End of an Era
Charles Chartouni 2024-12-02 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Iran Lebanon Middle East Hezbollah Israel Hamas
The Iranian revolutionary imaginary and its strategic projections are gradually coming to an end with the unraveling of the proxies tapestry, the destruction of its operational platforms and the debunking of its political mythologies. The conjunction of internal crises with the demise of the imperial dominion is no hazard; it’s the outcome of ...
Does the War Have an End in Sight?
Charles Chartouni 2024-11-25 09:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Truce Middle East Iran Hezbollah Israel
The delusions of truce, however legitimate they might be, have no chance of materializing. The strategic realignments have changed the plot and the narrative of the ongoing wars: Israel is not in the business of securing its northern and southern borders anymore. The new axis of war is based on changing a region's military and political dynamics ...
State Terrorism and the State of Terror
Charles Chartouni 2024-11-21 10:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
When I was questioned by State Security (SS), I couldn’t help but recall the methods of Nazi Germany’s political police, particularly Heinrich Himmler’s infamous Gestapo. Yet, unlike the Nazi regime’s political police, the one manipulated by Shiite fascism is a bunch of hired killers and mafiosos, exploiting honorable soldiers—men who ...
Dilemmas of Security
Charles Chartouni 2024-11-18 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Lebanon is in a state of open warfare with no signs of abating. Dynamics are multipronged and resourced through coalescing conflicts. The prevalent stasis seems to thrive in the absence of working state institutions, the lack of national consensus, the abiding influence of the Iranian regime, and the ideological enthrallment that dominates the ...
The Inevitable Defeat of the Iranian Islamist Dystopia
Charles Chartouni 2024-11-11 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
The undue prolongation of war in Lebanon and Gaza and its cohort of tragedies should be traced to the cynical calculations of the Iranian regime using the Near Eastern operational terrains as its remote defense lines. The war scheme is no hazard; it’s initially meant to protect Iranian strategic security, consolidate its dominions, destabilize ...