15 Oct 2018 - NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa Democracy

Articles

Reality Breaks Up a (Saudi) Prince Charming’s Media Narrative
The New York Times, 14 Oct 2018

Just six months ago, American media outlets presented a sunny-side-up portrait of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia as he made a good-will tour of New York, Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Eager journalists captured him at Starbucks with Michael R. Bloomberg, strolling the Google grounds with Sergey Brin and dining with Rupert Murdoch. Built into the narrative was a mostly cheerful acceptance of the story Crown Prince Mohammed was selling about himself — that here, at last, was the modern Middle Eastern leader the West had been waiting for. That story started to crack apart on Oct. 2, when the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a sharp critic of the Saudi government, walked into the country’s consulate in Istanbul and didn’t walk out.

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Global community must go beyond military cooperation to assist Africa
Modern Diplomacy, 12 Oct 2018

Russian Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, has urged global community to go beyond military cooperation to assist African countries that are still facing a number of serious development problems particularly infrastructure, social inequality, healthcare and education. According to Bogdanov, transnational problems, the issues of arms smuggling, drug trafficking, illegal migration and even slavery continue escalating on the African continent. “Joint efforts of the whole global community are required for meeting those challenges, I am confident that the aid to African states should go beyond military components,” the Russian diplomat stressed.

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The Daily 202: Trump resists limiting Saudi arms sales amid growing diplomatic crisis over journalist’s disappearance
The Washington Post, 11 Oct 2018

After headlining a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last night, President Trump phoned in live to Fox News during the 11 p.m. hour to discuss his response to Hurricane Michael. Then host Shannon Bream asked what he’ll do if he becomes convinced Saudi Arabia is responsible for the death or disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

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Why can't the Middle East have its own 'Arab NATO'?
TRTWorld , 09 Oct 2018

Middle Eastern wars have cost, according to conservative estimates, around 1.5 million lives and 11 trillion dollars since the end of World War II. No part of the world has witnessed more persistent violence, chaos and instability as the region—inaccurately—dubbed the Middle East and North Africa. No one challenges the fact that MENA is without a doubt a security complex (where any major security development in one part of automatically affects the rest of the complex). Despite being seen as a unit, the region has never been home to a comprehensive and inclusive security architecture, like NATO, since it gained independence from French and British colonization. That’s not to say that it was never tried. Several attempts were made to establish a functioning regional security architecture. Without exception, they were all selective and exclusive by nature.

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China's Nuclear Diplomacy in the Middle East
The Diplomat, 09 Oct 2018

On September 21, China’s Ministry of Justice published its draft Atomic Energy Law, which urges its vast nuclear industry to go forth into the world and secure a portion of the nuclear export market. Unlike the “Gold Standard” interpretation of the “1+2+3” agreement in the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1954, China will not officially limit a partner country’s access to the full nuclear fuel cycle in exchange for nuclear cooperation. This is an important distinction and is the same policy that Russia subscribes to in its nuclear export agreements. While both countries may not be willing to export enrichment technology, they will not explicitly state this or preclude any future partnership on the nuclear fuel cycle. Nuclear exports are an extension of their foreign policy as they seek to secure long-term geopolitical influence and they are signaling that negotiations are always on the table with the Global South.

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