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Blogs, Sport 17 March, 2022

Soft power and the unstoppable rise of sport in the Middle East

If any doubts remained about the link between geopolitics and international sport, then the recent reaction of global sporting bodies to the Russia-Ukraine conflict has surely dispelled them....

Blogs, Sport 17 March, 2022

Diligencia to focus on sport in the Middle East & Africa

Later this year one of the world’s most watched sporting events, the FIFA World Cup, will be hosted in the Middle East for the first time, in Qatar....

Blogs, Sport 17 March, 2022

Bids for Chelsea FC: who are the ‘Saudi Media Group’?

Roman Abramovich’s decision to put Chelsea Football Club up for sale (shortly before he was sanctioned by the UK government for his links to Russian president Vladimir Putin) has already attracted a number of potential buyers....

Blogs, Clean energy 17 February, 2022

The challenges facing Iran's quest for clean and renewable energy

The latest in our series on clean energy in the Middle East and Africa takes a closer look at the progress being made in Iran in pursuit of reducing carbon emissions....

Blogs 17 January, 2022

Turkish TV drama, and other conversation starters

Studying the Middle East as a Turkish researcher is no easy task. There are the practical challenges of conducting fieldwork in the region – navigating visa restrictions that are often subject to the political relations between...

Blogs 4 January, 2022

Resolutions for 2022: Keep good company

While I generally try to avoid making ill-fated predictions and resolutions at this time of year, there are times when a passing comment or suggestion seems to put a new complexion on, and even set the tone for, the 12 months...

Blogs, Infrastructure 7 December, 2021

Building a state within a State: NEOM and the new future of Saudi Arabia

Anyone who has lived and worked in the Gulf is probably accustomed to seeing new roads, buildings, sometimes whole cities erupt from the desert landscape in staggeringly short periods of time. Ambitious new infrastructure...

Blogs, Clean energy 1 December, 2021

The expansion of renewables in North Africa

North Africa has an abundance of renewable energy resources, with some of the highest potentials in the world for solar energy deployment. After a series of successful projects in recent years, the region is now set to develop...

Blogs 25 November, 2021

Instagram: empowering female retailers in Iran

Much has been said about how the pandemic has changed our relationship with online shopping. However, the situation in Iran is somewhat unique, as sanctions from abroad and firewalls from within create difficulties (and...

Blogs, Clean energy 22 November, 2021

The clean energy landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa

With global attention focusing on climate change and the clean energy transition, Africa is an important continent to watch in the drive for decarbonisation alongside rapid economic development. Several major initiatives are...

Blogs 17 November, 2021

The outlook for Carbon Capture and Storage in the Gulf states

In the second of our series of blogs and white papers covering clean energy initiatives across Africa and the wider Middle East, we focus on the uptake of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the Gulf states....

Blogs, Clean energy 26 October, 2021

Climate initiatives in the Gulf: the changing energy landscape in the run up to COP26

After years of muted progress, the Gulf states are now ramping up their efforts to address climate change with major new targets and initiatives recently announced. This comes amidst a flurry of worldwide activity on climate...

Blogs, Clean energy 26 October, 2021

Diligencia to focus on clean energy in the Middle East & Africa

Next week, global leaders will gather in Glasgow at the UN’s climate change conference, COP26, to discuss how to reduce the devastating impact that global warming and climate change are having on our planet. This year to date has...

Blogs, Infrastructure 4 August, 2021

Saudi Arabia pushes on with giga-projects supported by web of local contractors

Article from volume 45, issue 1,131 The Covid-19 pandemic has put huge pressure on government finances, but Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s favoured mega-projects have continued nevertheless, underpinned by Public Investment...

Blogs, Infrastructure 4 August, 2021

Contractor profiles: Leading Saudi firms involved in the Kingdom's giga-projects

Article from volume 45, issue 1,131...

Blogs 4 July, 2021

Wirecard and the dangers of weaponising corporate intelligence

During a recent ACAMS panel discussion on the Wirecard fraud, a central theme emerged of just how many people maintained a collective belief that the digital payments company was a spectacular success story. Perhaps most notably,...

Blogs, Healthcare 14 June, 2021

The Jab Market – Covid vaccines and the private sector in the MEA region

During the Covid pandemic many countries have seen private sector organisations lending their support to address the crisis. From alcohol companies switching to make hand sanitiser, to manufacturing companies re-tooling...

Blogs 24 May, 2021

Time to tighten the belt – 6AMLD and the ever-expanding waistband of money laundering offences

Less than two weeks remain (at the time of writing) until the 3 June deadline for implementation of the EU’s most recent piece of AML legislation – its sixth directive since the bloc was formed in the early 1990s. This set of...

Blogs 16 May, 2021

The UAE’s US T-Bond drive: a judicious approach?

Last week’s news that the United Arab Emirates has been massively increasing its US Treasury holdings was largely unexpected, at least for many international analysts. In fact, according to fresh Treasury data1, in February alone...

Marketing material 31 March, 2021

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