Middle East: Strategy

Egypt is exploring a dedicated investment fund for biotechnology, medical devices, and digital health technologies, while South Africa strengthens cooperation between tax and consumer authorities to combat illicit goods and positions itself in the global electric mobility and battery value chains. These developments highlight strategic initiatives across African nations to advance healthcare innovation, regulatory enforcement, and sustainable technology sectors.

The UAE has established a new Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority, consolidating three separate government bodies under a single national framework. This institutional development signals...

Saudi Arabia's new Copyright Law Implementing Regulations, published on 31 July 2026, provide crucial clarity on neighbouring rights, online enforcement mechanisms, software licensing terms, AI training exceptions, and border enforcement procedures. While resolving many practical questions for rights holders and businesses, the framework leaves certain areas—including AI-generated content ownership and collective management society governance—open for future development.

The UAE has established a new Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority, consolidating three separate government bodies under a single national framework. This institutional development signals...

The State of Qatar has introduced significant amendments to its Advocacy Law through Law No. 19 of 2025, fundamentally reshaping the legal profession's regulatory framework. These reforms expand the competencies of State Lawyers, modernize registration requirements, ease restrictions on commercial activities, and introduce new rules on advertising and fee structures.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE have escalated in recent months, manifesting in blocked financial transfers, delayed trade shipments, and diverging strategic visions for the Middle East. While both Gulf powers remain aligned on key objectives, their competition for economic dominance and conflicting approaches to regional conflicts reveal a growing rift that could reshape US strategy, global energy markets, and multinational business operations in the region.

Middle Eastern M&A activity demonstrated notable resilience through the first half of 2026 despite the U.S./Iran conflict, with deal values holding steady at USD45.4 billion across 516 transactions. While consumer-facing sectors like retail, hospitality and tourism experienced selective slowdowns, strategic buyers and sovereign investors maintained robust activity, particularly in defense technology.

After 1,000 days since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, Israel has demonstrated unmatched military capability across Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, achieving tactical victories including the elimination of enemy leadership and degradation of militant infrastructure. Yet despite this operational dominance, Israel has failed to convert battlefield success into durable political settlements, leaving Hamas undefeated as a governing force, Hizballah unresolved despite a buffer zone, and Iran's regime intact after leade

The United Arab Emirates' departure from OPEC in April 2026 represents the most significant defection in the oil cartel's 66-year history. What drove this founding-era member to abandon nearly six decades of coordinated production policy, and how will this decision reshape global energy markets as the UAE pursues an independent production strategy unconstrained by quota limitations?

National oil companies across the Gulf Cooperation Council face a critical strategic decision as their giant legacy fields enter decline. Should they replicate expensive greenfield operating models, or design new frameworks specifically built for mature assets? This analysis examines three distinct operating model archetypes and reveals how GCC NOCs can achieve both low production costs and lean G&A through deliberate functional decomposition.

Middle Eastern sovereign capital has dominated global energy markets for decades through low-cost LNG assets, but unprecedented disruptions in 2026 have fundamentally altered the risk landscape.

The concept of dual licensing has emerged as a transformative development in the UAE’s business ecosystem, giving companies the strategic flexibility to operate across both free zones and the mainland under a more integrated structure.