Through the Looking Glass
As we present the audio version of this edition of Through the Looking Glass, we invite you to experience these insights from the perspective of a global investor, shaped by first-hand observations of the transformation reshaping the Middle East and beyond.
Few regions today offer the same combination of ambition, pace of reform, strategic positioning, and appetite for partnership. From our vantage point at the crossroads of international capital and regional opportunity, this edition explores not only how markets are evolving, but where the next wave of investment value is being created.
Episodes
10 episodes
Jordan’s Quiet Proposition: Stability, Talent and Operational Depth
Jordan continues to position itself as a politically stable, reform-oriented jurisdiction that is situated in a volatile neighbourhood, trading scale for predictability, access, and human capital. For investors who already maintain regional pla...
How the UAE is Turning Volatility into a Structured Investment
At a time when the wider Middle East and MENA region was navigating conflict-driven shocks, including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and waves of Iranian aerial attacks on Gulf energy and civilian infrastructure, the United Arab Emirates h...
Qatar's Next Chapter for Global Investors
Qatar is at a turning point. Its world-leading LNG infrastructure has faced unprecedented challenges, but the country has responded with resilience and foresight. Far from slowing down, these events have reinforced Qatar's drive to modern...
Africa's Gateway: How Morocco Is Converting Reform Momentum into a Structural Investment
Morocco's investment story in 2026 is one of convergence. Infrastructure investment is accelerating at scale. And legal and regulatory architecture that is steadily closing the gap between policy ambition and operational reality. At a time when...
Oman’s Trade Landscape
Oman in 2026 looks different. A unified zones law, personal income tax, a maturing PPP framework, tighter corporate governance and a specialist investment court are changing how investors and lenders assess risk, structure deals and deploy capi...
Kuwait 2026: The Strategic Shifts Investors Need to Watch Now
For decades, Kuwait’s investment story could be told in a single word: oil. That is changing. Against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical tensions and route risk, Kuwait continues to ‑hardcode new tax and corporate governance rules while driv...
New Routes, New Energy Math, New FDI Logic
Saudi Arabia is using the current regional crisis not as a reason to pause, but as an accelerant for its repositioning as an energy and logistics powerhouse. The new overland and pipeline-linked routes emerging from the conflict are central to ...
Corporate State in Beta
Walk through the looking glass into Iraq in 2026 and you don’t find a neat, post‑conflict turnaround story. You find a big, complicated, resource‑rich state that is still debugging its corporate operating system in real time. The laws are there...
Egypt’s Legal Evolution and FDI Surge
Any assessment of Egypt’s corporate investment landscape in 2026 necessarily entails reading the legal framework against a period of FX volatility, subsidy reform and regional conflict that has strained, but not extinguished, investor appetite....
Regulation, Capital and Connectivity: Bahrain’s Competitive Edge in the Gulf
Against a shifting geopolitical landscape and evolving global market dynamics, Bahrain continues to chart a steady and deliberate course - demonstrating resilience and strategic clarity at a time when cross border capital and policy confidence ...