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This study reviews the challenges and opportunities encountered by Qatar because of the blockade imposed by the neighboring countries, namely Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Egypt. It endeavors to highlight potential scenarios of the crisis. This paper employs a secondary source of information to achieve the objectives, such as books, articles, reports, and academic research, which were later subjected to thematic analysis. The findings of this research reveal that crisis management was an effective strategy implemented by the Qatari Government. It helped Qatari officials to change and transfer the negative impacts to a positive force. The crisis management strategy encouraged Qatar to rely on their local industries, improve education and media institutes, and use Qatar’s soft power internationally. Although 2017 was a challenging year for Qatar due to the crisis, yet the national economy showed an accelerated growth of 5% in the second half of the same year. 

This article seeks to explore the conflict between Samsung and Apple. The conflict has been one of the most outstanding patent wars in the history of the smartphone industry. Apple and Samsung are among the most popular manufacturers of commonly used smartphones and tablets. The conflict began when Apple decided to file a federal lawsuit in the US district court, accusing Samsung of copying some of its iPhone features in the Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone. The court ascertained that the gadget had similar characteristics to Apple, thus ordering Samsung to pay Apple for the damages. In response, Samsung reacted by filing countersuits. The two firms, almost fifty cases in different nations and regions. The issues lasted for seven years, starting from 2011 and ending in 2016, in which both companies benefited and lost at the same time. The conflict emanated because of each firm pursuing its competitive advantage in the market. Apart from following market shares, third parties, like consumers, instigated the conflict, with international politics and the media playing a role.

Following the Arab Spring in 2011, Yemen’s devastating conflicts have deepened even further, leading the country to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Despite the international community's multiple attempts to resolve this conflict, the conflict seems to have reached a stalemate. To make matters worse, resolving the conflict is made difficult by the large number of parties involved, internally and externally, and by the complex, dual and fluid nature of the relationships they share. Although the media and international community's focus is directed towards the binary conflict between the Hadi government and Saudi Arabia on one side and Iran and the Houthis on the other, the conflict is greatly multifaceted and far from being binary. This paper critically analyzes and explores other participating actors to comprehend the root causes of the conflict entirely. Although this conflict has been advertised as a proxy war, while others trace back the motivation to sectarianism, this paper argues how this analysis can be misleading and hindering the peace process.

The participation of private and military contractors in armed conflicts is the contemporary phenomenon that concerned policymakers and military strategists, particularly Russian contractors. This phenomenon attracts most politicians to set up initiatives and to draw international guidelines to all concerned parties. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the condition of Russian private military and security companies (PMSCs) in recent armed conflicts. The research is based on the realism approach, which will help explain Russian state behavior towards PMSCs, while the neoliberalism approach will help to explore this phenomenon from the Russian economic perspective. This research applies inductive, exploratory, and qualitative approaches, which solely based on secondary resources and media contents. The main finding of this research shows that those contractors have obligations under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), but the only limitation is the state’s obligation to endorse them.  Besides, it seems that an international treaty between countries could be a practical step towards having a useful regulatory framework.

The role of Omani diplomacy is visible in promoting its foreign policy and fulfilling the Sultan’s vision. Since 1970, Oman adopted a different foreign policy in both regional and international arenas characterized by independence, pragmatism, and moderation. This approach was reshaped after Sultan Qaboos bin Said seized rule. His first order of business was to accelerate the steps towards modernizing the Sultanate by adopting a nation-wide social, educational, and cultural reform often referred to as the Omani Renaissance. To translate the Sultan’s vision to reality, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has adopted a well-structured mechanism that will enhance diplomatic relations with various countries of the world. This research highlights Oman’s diplomacy strategy post-1970. It focuses on Oman’s foreign policy doctrine and examines the different categories of diplomacy that have been practiced in achieving Oman's foreign policy. The research includes the following types of diplomacy: official, mediation, tolerance and co-existence, economy, cultural, water, poet, aviation, and non-governmental diplomacy. This paper attempts to contribute to academia by providing a comprehensive outlook on Oman’s diplomacy, focusing on this topic from a practical point of view. It presents Omani diplomacy through dialogue and negotiations. It assembles a clear direction for the reader based on information, including personal communication with Omani diplomats. Since 1970, Oman adopted a different foreign policy in both regional and international arenas characterized by independence, pragmatism, and moderation. This approach was reshaped after Sultan Qaboos bin Said seized rule. His first order of business was to accelerate the steps towards modernizing the Sultanate by adopting a nation-wide social, educational, and cultural reform often referred to as the Omani Renaissance. To translate the Sultan's vision to reality, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has adopted a well-structured mechanism that will enhance diplomatic relations with various countries of the world. This research highlights Oman's diplomacy strategy post-1970. It focuses on Oman's foreign policy doctrine and examines the different categories of diplomacy that have been practiced in achieving Oman's foreign policy. The research includes the following types of diplomacy: official, mediation, tolerance and co-existence, economy, cultural, water, poet, aviation, and non-governmental diplomacy.  

In Syria, there is not expected to break out of the revolution of this magnitude. Most people of Syria before others did not expect that the revolution breaks out originally because the regime governs Syria in an oppressive security manner. The regime controls the situation that making it difficult of any popular movement. Political life is not existent in the country. There are no civil society organizations and trade unions are not real and not real parties or political groupings, making it difficult with the outbreak of the revolution in the country in such a dictatorship, security control, which controls everything in people's lives. So Syria was apparently outside the US and global thinking. It has been stated by some officials in America and has had their expectations outbreak of the revolution in Syria minimal because the global system was not ready to abandon the Assad regime because the regime is better for them. However, the revolution in Syria broke out, caught and swept across the country, confusing international systems that were not planning to substitute for the Syrian regime. The Syrian regime is no doubt that one of the major hubs in the region.

For more than a decade, China has a policy of managing its currency exchange rate (RMB) to limit its appreciation against other currencies like U.S dollar. This policy has been subjected to many criticisms from United States’ lawmakers as currency manipulation.  The U.S. argues that China is gaining an advantage of export and attracting direct foreign investment at the expense of other countries including the United State. The claim also has included that China’s manipulation causes U.S. trade deficit as well as high rate of unemployment. Meanwhile, China’s policy makers argue that its policy of exchange rate is a mechanism tool to enhance the development of the country and attaining market growth to make China rich and powerful. This research paper underlines the root of this argument and how china’s currency policy has affected both economics of U.S. and China. Many economists have emphasized on the appreciation of RMB as an important factor to attain the trade balance. However, this research argues that the appreciation is not going to matter. Pressure has been put on Obama’s Administration to push China to appreciate its currency and to designate China as a "currency manipulator". Several Bills have been introduced to discuss this issue.From a legal perspective, two entities could tackle this issue. They are the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, IMF lack legitimacy and leverage and WTO has no jurisdiction over the exchange rate. So, none of these entities could handle the currency issue. Therefore, this paper analyzes some possible solutions such as Omnibus Act, tariffs, import quotas and forming new legislation. Where, it concludes that the best solution could be via forming a new international agency.

Palestinian society is geographically separated and politically fragmented. This is attributed to partisan affiliation and alignment, absence of conceptual and professional framework of civil society, unethical approach of Palestinian political leaders, and unconstitutional political institutions. Such polarization and division have created political antagonism within elites and between factions. The broad objective of this research is to investigate the legitimacy crisis in Palestine, the current political dilemma in the Palestinian Authority, and the public response to the situation. The research introduces direct and thorough understanding of the developing political context surrounding these issues; taking into consideration that growing deficit in legitimacy could create potentially dire consequences, particularly if present trends on the ground continue. The research promotes an analytical perspective based on legitimacy theory and exploring recent public opinion polls.

The United Nations (UN), despite some successful stories, has largely failed to safeguard international peace and security, particularly in the Middle East since its establishment. The UN’s inability to effectively resolve international conflicts is due to the Security Council (UNSC)’s decision making-process. The power to block any initiatives that do not fit the interest of any of the five permanent members (P5: US, UK, France, Russia, China) have impeded the UN’s ability to take effectively take actions where it is needed in safeguarding security in the Middle East. The nature of the veto power no longer reflects the reality of the 21st century; the UN is frozen in the context of the post-Second World War era and has failed to evolve with the international community.  Double standards in the International Court of Justice's decrees and infirmity of purpose of the UNSC overshadow the legitimacy of the organization, jeopardizing its security mission, and clashes with the democratic values in world public opinion. The UN should change to earn legitimacy and efficiency of preserving international peace and security by amending decision making system in the UNSC or changing decision-making organ within the UN. The Secretary General’s diplomatic activism and attempts to fill the gap left by the P5 infightings could not succeed because of the resistance of the UNSC’s permanent members to change and lack of integrity among the other states. To ensure democratic transformation of the UN today, all states, NGOs and think tanks should work together. This study discusses the system's current shortcomings and suggests some alternative paths for the effective transformation of the UN as a supranational security institution.