The Red Velvet Lawyer

Where is the Middle East Headed  After the Killing of Solemani Tonight I attended an event sponsored by the Al Jazeera Center for Studies focused on the topic: " Where is the Middle East Headed After the Killing of Solemani ." The program -- held on January 8, 2020 at the Al Jazeera Media Institute Auditorium -- featured four speakers: Mahommaed Cherkaoui, Senior Researcher at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies. Liqaa Maki, Senior Researcher at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies. Haoues Taquia, Researcher at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies. Majoob Zweiri, Director of the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University.  The translation services were again disappointing because of a variety of technical issues.  Half the audience left after 30 minutes.  I stuck around for intermittent translation services and the chance to talk with people at the reception afterwards.  Accordingly, my notes are very incomplete.  So, any summary here is given with a very big caveat. The

Some Context After the News of the Killing of  Iranian Commander Suleimani As a US expat living in Qatar, I have attended a number of academic programs discussing tensions in the region between the US, its regional allies, and Iran. See here , here , here , here , and here . This past year, I wrote a review analyzing a new book on the security architecture and world-views of the regional actors. I recommended the book as a "fearless examination of the persistent tensions in the most volatile region in the world, along with the security architecture that makes it persistently unstable." See Book Review: Troubled Waters: Insecurity in the Persian Gulf, Mehran Kamrava (Cornell U. Press 2018) , 9 J. of Arabian Studies 116 (2019), available here .