Contested Conflicts: Diverse Perspectives on Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, and Beyond

In Sudan’s protracted war, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces outmanoeuvred Abdelfattah Al-Burhan’s Armed Forces through sabotage, new weapons, and broader networks. But as regional actors and local militia hijack the war’s original power-struggle, frontlines and command chains shattered.

Recognised as an independent state in 2011, South Sudan is the youngest and poorest country in the world. However, violence and armed conflict have continued, demonstrating how local and national conflicts interact. A Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2018 remains fragile.

The Global Orders and Foreign Policies Research Programme studies the development and maintenance of regional and global orders in contemporary world politics – along with challenges to those orders – as well as examining the agency and policies of established and emergent actors and structures that contribute to these ordering processes.

This article examines Saudi Arabia’s complex positioning in the Russia-Ukraine war, considering its adherence to the norm of equal sovereignty alongside its foreign-policy determinants. Outwardly supporting Ukraine’s right to sovereignty its continued cooperation with Russia paints a different picture.

This article assesses Saudi Arabia's ambivalent response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In concluding, the implications of the Kingdom's stance on the war for future global order-making are discussed.

In diesem MOTRA-Spotlight werden das Ausmaß der Kriegsangst sowie Einstellungen der Bevölkerung in Deutschland zu Militärhilfen für die Ukraine vorgestellt und diskutiert.

Über einen eigenen Staat für die Palästinenser wird seit Jahrzehnten gestritten. Nun könnte die Debatte darüber erneut beginnen. Das liegt auch an der aktuellen Entwicklung im Gazakrieg – und Donald Trump.

What are the repercussions of the Gaza war in the Middle East? The article argues that the war has taken the region “forward to the past,” e.g. by revitalizing “Palestine” as a central issue and by increasing the regimes-people divide. At the same time, “Palestine” today has broader global resonance than previous Arab and Islamic framings.

In Sudan’s protracted war, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces outmanoeuvred Abdelfattah Al-Burhan’s Armed Forces through sabotage, new weapons, and broader networks. But as regional actors and local militia hijack the war’s original power-struggle, frontlines and command chains shattered.

Recognised as an independent state in 2011, South Sudan is the youngest and poorest country in the world. However, violence and armed conflict have continued, demonstrating how local and national conflicts interact. A Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2018 remains fragile.

The Global Orders and Foreign Policies Research Programme studies the development and maintenance of regional and global orders in contemporary world politics – along with challenges to those orders – as well as examining the agency and policies of established and emergent actors and structures that contribute to these ordering processes.