AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

Misdeeds, lies and refusals

15 May 2020

Dissident writer George Packer has, once again, stirred controversy in the US by reverting to his contention that the US is a failed state. This, he argues in The...

Daesh exploits COVID-19 to mount more attacks

10 May 2020

Daesh is exploiting the world’s preoccupation with the coronavirus to regroup, recoup, and mount frequent attacks in Iraq and Syria. Daesh’s leadership has announced a “Ramadan offensive” and urged...

Too little too soon

09 May 2020

Scientists believe Covid-19 could be with us for long time. So far, the coronavirus has infected 3.5 million and killed more than 350,000 around the world. While data experts...

Lebanese will die of hunger if there is no bailout

03 May 2020

After four days of violent confrontations between Lebanese soldiers and civilians protesting the government’s failure to tackle the country’s economic collapse, Beirut finally adopted an economic rescue plan. There was...

Double X, No Why

30 Apr 2020

The globe’s few female national leaders have tackled the coronavirus crisis more effectively and efficiently than many of their far more numerous male counterparts. Although women are the chief executives in...

Lebanon’s COVID-19 fight is laudable

26 Apr 2020

Lebanon has, so far, successfully managed the coronavirus invasion. According to the latest count, at least 704 Lebanese have been infected by the virus, two dozen have died, and 143...

The buck stops here

23 Apr 2020

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is the nemesis and antithesis of the current occupant of the White House Donald Trump. Cuomo haunts Trump’s waking and sleeping hours because Cuomo...

Erdogan faces huge domestic challenges

21 Apr 2020

While the globe is preoccupied with the coronavirus and economic meltdown, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pursuing his neo-Ottoman ambitions by projecting his country’s power on two fronts in...

Buried and Blind

16 Apr 2020

In mid-March, World Health Organisation (WHO) head Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told global governments, “Test, test, test!” Testing he said is the “backbone” of the global fight against the...

Iraqis, Lebanese not to compromise on reforms

12 Apr 2020

Inventive Lebanese and Iraqi revolutionaries driven from the streets and squares of their countries by coronavirus lockdowns are devising new means of sustaining their demands for thorough-going political reform. Those...

Michael Jansen

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