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Plans to set up new military bases in the Middle East are being considered as part of a strategy to tackle extremism, it emerged last night. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Bahrain are all being looked at as part of the Government's attempts to contain the terror threat from the wider region, according to The Times. The United Kingdom is severely interested in stopping ISIS.

The reshuffle in Saudi Arabia provokes some disconcerting thoughts about democratization in the Middle East.

People often fall victim to human trafficking, especially in the Middle East. The different forms of human trafficking are considered a contemporary form of slavery. Many of the human traffickers are often migrant workers.

According the Independent, a middle east news center, reported today an explosion in Ankara with at least 18 killed and 45 injured; a car bomb hit Turkey's capital. Turkish officials assume that the Kurdish Worker's Party is responsible; possibly due to an unsuccessful peace negotiations between Turkey and the PKK.

People who are usually poorly educated and have limited financial resources in the Middle East typically find themselves falling victims to forced labor and human trafficking. The people are taken to private homes and confined, beaten, and raped by their employers.

A report prepared by the ILO showed the highest rates of human trafficking were registered in the Middle East. Many times the employees are routinely deceived regarding their living and working conditions. A lack of an inspection mechanism makes workers more vulnerable to mistreatment.

John Brennan, the CIA director, told a Senate committee Tuesday that the violence and instability in the Middle East was the worst it had been in 50 years, painting a dire picture of a region he said was facing "unprecedented" bloodshed.

The past year has been incredibly tumultuous for the Middle East. Political upheaval is still roiling throughout the region since the Arab Spring, and wars have continued to grind on in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Libya. But despite the conflict, life continues in this region where 257 million people call home.

No, it's not using solar panels to power mansions in Palo Alto. It's using clean energy to pump oil ... in the Middle East, no less, the epicenter of the world's oil resources. GlassPoint Solar is building sophisticated mirrors in a desert in Oman to transform solar energy into steam, used in a popular kind of oil extraction.

None of this should surprise. After all, it's a presidential election year, and it would be downright un-American not to blame or criticize someone. But who or what is actually responsible for the unhappy state of affairs in the muddled Middle East? Here are some plausible possibilities.

Political and social turbulence in the Middle East will continue to foster the rise of terrorist groups, some of which will have the motivation and capability to attack US interests. As the United States looks to address these threats, it will attempt to find a strategy that is both effective and sustainable.

This source presents a visual tool for understanding the layout of ports in the Middle East. Not only does the site show the locations, icons show the size of the ports in the region.

It is only in recent years that focus on cyber security has ramped up. Predictions are that if an all out cyber warfare was to initiate that although both sides would suffer casualties the Middle East would not have the infrastructure to emerge victorious or recover.

This scholarly research article looks at the relationship between women and media in the Middle East. One interesting perspective that I took from this article, is that they not only looked at how Middle Eastern women can be negatively portrayed, but also a lack of representation of women in media at large.

This essay, by Abdul Quader Shaikh, is published by the U.S. International Trade Administration and outlines a brief history of free trade agreements between the U.S. and the Middle East.