Experts in the News

For the UAE, COP28 was not just about environmental benefits, said Coates Ulrichsen.

“The UAE invested a lot of political and diplomatic capital in COP28 and wanted precisely this kind of landmark statement that would associate the UAE with setting the global agenda and forging a new consensus for the road ahead.”

The Colloquium on Brain Capital Dec. 5 brought together experts from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and the university’s Office of Innovation to discuss Houston’s potential to lead brain health research. Eyre argued that brain health is a critical aspect of well-being that affects cognitive abilities, socioemotional stability, and overall quality of life. 

On Russian President Vladimir Putin’s December 2023 visits to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Coates Ulrichsen said:

“Putin’s high-profile meetings [in the Gulf] are significant both in terms of substance, given the focus on energy policy as well as Gaza, and symbolism, given the deep international divisions over the response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, since October, the perception felt by many across the Arab world, and much of the Global South, of double standards in the Western, and especially American, response to Israel and Gaza.”

Wind towers and other energy technologies “invented in Masdar have become recognizable ideas internationally,” said Günel.

“Some of the vernacular features of Arabian Gulf architecture are now more present elsewhere.”

“In reality, the accords simply elevated and formalized relations between countries that already maintained backchannel ties,” said Rahman, in response to a claim by former President Donald Trump that the accords had achieved “peace in the Middle East.”

“Moreover, none of the parties to the Abraham Accords were ever engaged in military conflict against each other, so framing normalization as peace is a gross misrepresentation of what the agreements actually achieved,” Rahman said.