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This is an opinion piece written by Cegniz Aktar, Senior Scholar at the Istanbul Policy Center, a director at the UN, and one of the leading advocates of Turkey's integration into the EU. In this piece, Aktar argues that Turkish politician "fearing the birth of a Kurdish nation-state more than anything but eager on the other hand to assert their regional supremacy, are ending up by alienating all three Kurdish communities" in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. He is referring specifically to President Ankara making a speech comparing the PKK to ISIL, a few days after stating that the PKK should be fighting ISIL rather than Turkey. Even though the Turkish government has been an economic partner of the Iraqi Kurds, they have offered them no military support, and have also preventing Turkish Kurds from joining the fight against ISIL. The Turkish government's fear of a sovereign Kurdish state is leading to extremely poor diplomatic outcomes.

This article touches on an array of ideas but for the sake of my research I focused on the "Thirty Years War" section. Douglass Murray from The Spectator conveys the perspective that the Middle East is likely to be going through a similar 17th century European 30 years war, when Protestant and Catholics launched a full fledged war against one another. This means that religious war in the Middle East is so much bigger than just al-Qaeda and similar groups. The conflict will re-align the region, but also the entire religion of Islam. Douglass says the outcome would call for a Treaty of Westphalia-style solution, redrawing boundaries of a region where they've been bursting for decades.  For the time being the drivers of the conflict is a standoff between the two regional powers and their affiliated proxies, Saudi Arabia and Iran. 

In this Electronic Intifada article, Ali Abunimah advocates for the single state solution and addresses John Kerry's statements of no possible, peaceful, outcome from a single state solution.

This article explores possible outcomes for Syrian Christians and the best situation for them if the regime falls, or if civil war continues

American Negotiator goes in depth about the long-term effects of the Iran Nuclear Deal. Outweighing the pros and cons of the situation and predicting the outcome.

Obama administration warns presidential candidates of negative effects that could occur if they were to pull out of nuclear deal. Claims that it would destroy the relationship they have built and Iran would go back to program. Candidates threaten to pull out of deal despite warnings in order to maintain alliances with other countries.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are suspected to go head to head in cyber warfare. Wikileaks revealed information that people put on edge in regards to Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Iran and Saudi Arabia, regional rivals in the Middle East, are involved in a cyber conflict. The nations use cyber attacks to release or leak critical intelligence to affect the outcomes of ongoing military conflicts in the region.

The Council on Foreign Relations published an article about democratization in the middle east and the major obstacles that are present in the process. While most assume Islamists and Islamic embedded institutions are the root of the delayed democratic transition, the problems are much bigger than that. While Islamist regimes do indeed stunt the growth of democratic progress in terms of creating a stable government, Arab countries struggle with economic and social factors as well. The Arab Spring Revolutions have caused economic and social degradation across the region, resulting in a road block of political leadership. Without a reliable and capable government structure, the states are unable to progress economically. However, in order to have a stable government, social and economic institutions must be in place to create this capitalist economy that they strive for. Because most wealth resides in oil, the revenue that the states bring in isn't distributed properly throughout society and is concentrated within few business elites. The article stresses that instead of foreign aid going into the hands of an unstable leader or regime, it should be invested in institutions in order to spur economic growth and eliminate corruption. Rather than focusing on the Islamist-secularist divide, the world should be working towards the strengthening of institutions to create a stable foundation for governance. 

This article details were certain countries, that are most affected by the Syrian conflict, stand within the conflict and how they would like to solve the issue. 

This article suggests that OPEC is losing control of global oil prices. The article addresses budget considerations for smaller OPEC producers, like Venezuela, and the battle over market share between OPEC and gulf producers.

U.S. troops have been in combat longer than at any point in American history. In addition to two major wars, U.S. Special Forces were deployed to 133 countries (approximately 70 percent of the nations on the planet) in 2014. It makes little sense to continue with the same tactic of perpetual war, without any assurance of a better strategic outcome.

This piece is about the education reform K-12 in Qatar. The program has started to use local education supplies to create a better community attitude toward education. Their have been efforts to create a universal curriculum and higher evaluation and testing. 

One year after Iran deal was est. Wall street Journal looks at Iran as being a force of terror still. Cyber attacks as well as threats towards the U.S. remains at large and is still very hostile.

In the Arab World, 2011 is developing into the year of revolution. Following the dramatic events in Tunisia and Egypt, a chain reaction has exposed the region's autocratic regimes to popular pressure like never before. Whatever the outcome of these events, the relationship between the rulers and the ruled in the Arab World has forever ...