Affiliate professor Kristian Coates Ulrichsen writes for the BBC that relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran are at their worst in nearly 30 years, following the execution of Saudi cleric Nimr al-Nimr, the subsequent setting ablaze of the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and Riyadh’s expulsion of Iranian diplomats. Read the full BBC article here.

On Thursday, November 12, approximately one hundred people came out on a stormy evening to hear the Middle East Center-sponsored roundtable discussion titled, “The Persian Gulf, Past and Present.” The discussion centered on how travel, trade, war, and political movements in the Gulf’s past have shaped its present. Presentations offered by panelists were: “Diversity and