Broken Contracts in the Middle East

Decades of deferred action on needed reforms have left the Islamic republic susceptible to financial crisis – and U.S. sanctions are bearing down.

Over the past couple of years, Israel has started growing closer to countries in the Persian Gulf region that once rejected it. But a government interested in abandoning the two-state solution and annexing parts of the West Bank will find its newfound relationships tested.

A cease-fire between rival Libyan governments has allowed the country's oil sector to recover over the past few years, but new fighting may put oil exports at risk once again.

Iraq's most important oil-producing province is striving to become a federal region, but that effort will not sit well with Baghdad.

In the face of punishing economic and political realities, Gulf Arab states are striving to transform their residents from subjects into citizens, but doing so is easier said than done.

Regardless of whether the protests worsen, the president's era is coming to an end.

To attract more foreign workers into its waning labor market, Emirati leaders have introduced reforms that risk alienating -- and angering -- their native citizens.

With its citizens balking at austerity, the coastal emirate is placing the onus of reforming its economic structure on the country's millions of foreign workers.