STANDPOINT by Atique Naqvi

The semi-autonomous Kurdistan government of Northern Iraq is a magnet for regional trade, oil production and Iraqi migrants, Barham Salih explains. "Many Arab investors are coming from the Gulf and are exploring investment opportunities, whether in energy, infrastructure, tourism, agriculture or food production sectors", he said in 2011. The interview was published in the March 2011 issue of the Dubai-based magazine TRENDS - An International Magazine on Arab Affairs. Below is the jpeg file of the TRENDS magazine.

Middle East can be in for prolonged instability By Atique Naqvi | Dubai, UAE | Uploaded on the blog recently** As global geopolitics continue their substantial shifts, the region, too, often finds itself the middle of events that ripple across the globe. Speaking with Bruce Jones, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Foreign Policy at the US-based Brookings Institution, the concern is that we are facing a prolonged period of instability, particularly in the Middle East. “Conflict zones aren’t multiplying, they’re migrating. That is, we continue to see a decline in numbers and levels of conflicts globally, except in one region – the wider Middle East. There, the number of wars is rising and so is their intensity. I fear that we are in for a long period of rising instability – and also brutal reactions – in the region,” says Jones ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai. As always, and even more so than ever, global stability is heavily dependen