Sultan Alamer
Sultan Alamer is a resident senior fellow at the New Lines Institute’s Middle East Center and a member of the editorial committee of Alpheratz magazine. He is also an associate of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. Alamer’s research focuses on nationalism and nation-building, governance and technology, and regional politics in the broader Middle East, with a special focus on the Arab Gulf countries. Alamer is a co-founder and member of the executive committee of the Arab Political Science Network. He is also a Bucerius fellow at the Zeit-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius.
Latest from Sultan Alamer
Saudi Arabia’s Break With Interventionism
After decades of shifting alliances that failed to deliver stability, Saudi Arabia now has a “zero-conflict” policy toward its neighbors. It is this, rather than a turn to Islamism, that is paradoxically creating tension with the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
Why Pilgrims Are Dying on the Hajj
A recent overhaul of Saudi Arabia's visa system has caused the rise of an international network of “Hajj racketeers.” When unauthorized pilgrims reach Mecca, stringent new security measures force them to undertake long, arduous treks on foot under the scorching desert sun to fulfill their religious duties.
How Henry Kissinger Bungled the Arab Oil Embargo
Most public debate about Kissinger’s legacy has concerned the morality of his “realism.” Yet examining his approach to U.S.-Saudi relations at a key moment reveals little strategic thinking and more of an ad hoc style, influenced by deep ideological values and a naive understanding of the Middle East.
A New Holiday Heralds a More Complex Understanding of Saudi Arabia’s Origins
The kingdom’s new Foundation Day plays down the false idea that the Saudi state legitimized itself through Wahhabism, with political authority divided between the ruling Al Saud dynasty and the religious establishment, and helps to reveal how it gained its legitimacy via a hybrid normative tradition that included Arabist and Salafist elements.
The Arab and Muslim Evolution of ‘Deviance’ in Homosexuality
Before the 20th century, Arabs and Muslims never described homosexuality as deviant or abnormal. For more than a millennium, religious scholars, linguists and poets discussed sexual relations close to our modern understanding of homosexuality without using derogatory terms common in the public discourse today.