Amatzia Baram

Amatzia Baram is professor emeritus at the Department of the History of the Middle East and Director of the Centre for Iraq Studies at the University of Haifa, Israel. He provides unique insight into the political background of Abu Muhammad al-Julani who has overthrown the brutal regime of Bashar Assad in Syria. Professor Baram does not address the terrorist activities of al-Julani but instead focuses on the sea-change in Syria and its regional impact. Baram is regarded as one of the most objective and trustworthy Middle East scholars.

September 9, 2026

Editor's Choice/Geopolitics

Why Tamil Nadu Keeps Killing Its Own Projects

The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government has announced the cancellation of a series of projects initiated by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which governed Tamil Nadu from 2021 to 2026. Among them

Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI’s Mathematical Breakthrough Triggers a Battle Over Credit and Ethics

OpenAI has claimed to have solved one of the most celebrated problems in the history of mathematics: the “existence and smoothness” problem of the Navier–Stokes equations, one of seven Millennium Problems identified by the Clay Mathematics Institute, each carrying a

September 9, 2026

Anthropic Researcher Resigns, Warning AI Race Could ‘Gamble With Our Lives’

Artificial Intelligence

A young researcher at Anthropic, Jacob Coxon, has resigned from the company, warning that the race to develop increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems is

Germany’s Far-Right Surge Tests, But Does Not Upend, Democracy

Geopolitics

The German Embassy in Colombo has sought to clarify Germany’s political situation following news of a surge for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)

Assad’s Army: What Went Wrong

December 17, 2024

Sri Lanka Guardian Essays

On November 27, when the rebels emerged from their Idlib enclave in north-western Syria, President Bashar Assad was on a visit to Moscow. The sudden disintegration of his army was even more

Who is Abu Muhammad al-Julani — New Leader in Syria

December 12, 2024

Sri Lanka Guardian Essays

Ahmad Hussein Ash-Shara, widely known as Abu Muhammad al-Julani, was born in Damascus in 1982 to a lower-middle-class Sunni Arab family. His father owned a grocery store, and al-Julani assisted him while