AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

The humble king

05 Jan 2023

King Pele has been mourned around the world not only because he and his triple crown World Cup Santos football club were widely honoured for victories on the field of...

Sticking points between Syria and Turkiye

01 Jan 2023

Last week’s meeting in Moscow of the Syrian and Turkish defence ministers appears to have led to the suspension of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s threat to mount a major...

Cancelled rights

29 Dec 2022

The Taliban’s decision to prohibit women from working for aid agencies operating in Afghanistan has been met by a suspension of services by CARE, Save the Children, the International Rescue...

Another Trump term would be too much to bear

25 Dec 2022

2022 has been an “annus horribilis” for the world. The phrase, meaning a horrible year,” gained currency 30 years ago when Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II employed the term to describe...

Festivities commence

22 Dec 2022

For the first time since covid struck in 2020, the West Bank Palestinian city of Bethlehem is fully booked by pilgrims and tourists ahead of Christmas. Like the Bethlehem of...

Why would anyone attack Irish peacekeepers?

18 Dec 2022

Private Sean Rooney was the 47th soldier to die in south Lebanon, the first in 23 years, since 1978 when the Irish army was first deployed to the region on...

Danger reporting

15 Dec 2022

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has reported that 67 journalists have been killed this year as compared to 47 last year and has called on the global community to...

A question of reviewing traditional relations

11 Dec 2022

Last week’s triple summits with China in Riyadh reinforced Arab unity and proclaimed Arab support for a multipolar world rather than the unipolar model exploited by the US after the...

An end in sight

08 Dec 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is “open to negotiations” to end the Ukraine war if the West accepts Moscow’s maximalist demand for recognition of Russian sovereignty over Ukrainian...

Iran: Disbanding morality police first sign of letup

04 Dec 2022

In response to 11 weeks of sustained popular protests against the requirement that Iranian women must wear headscarves in public, the clerical government seems to be making concessions with the...

Michael Jansen

The author, a well-respected observer of Middle East affairs, has three books on the Arab-Israeli conflict.