On Wednesday this week, the Emir of Kuwiat Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah appeared on Kuwaiti state television to announce that he had dissolved his country's parliament and was seeking to schedule new elections. The Emir's actions again highlight not just the fragility of pluralist political structures in the Arab world, but their ultimate hollowness.

The war in Afghanistan is at a tipping point. For the past 8 years, the NATO-led forces have been fighting doggedly against a highly resilient and surprisingly adaptable Taleban insurgency. However, the inability of the Bush administration to articulate a clear strategy beyond “search and destroy” missions has seen the operation stuck in a tail chasing exercise that requires fresh thinking and innovative new approaches.

Ayman Nour, the public face of Egypt's liberal, centrist and secular opposition, was released from prison in February this year (officially for health reasons, Nour being diabetic), prompting speculation as to why the Egyptian government had seen fit to allow one of its most vocal critics back into the political spotlight.

Whilst overtures were made during what seemed an endless Presidential campaign through 2008 as to a change in direction in US Middle East policy under an Obama administration, intrigue has remained as to what the first moves and first priorities of the new foreign policy team would be.