The 28th issue of Lubab Journal for Strategic Studies was published in early November 2025. It features a collection of studies addressing the transformations in regional and international power balances within their historical, economic and diplomatic contexts, highlighting the role of small and medium-sized states in the emerging global order.
The journal opens with a study titled “Strategies of Balancing Relations with the Ottomans and the British during the Era of the Founding Fathers of the State of Qatar”, which explores the roots of modern Qatari foreign policy through an analysis of historical balancing relations with the Ottoman and British empires. Another study, “The Indirect Effects of US Tariffs on the GCC States”, examines how American economic decisions impact the region’s economies and trade balances.
In the section on international relations, a study titled “The United Nations and Regional Organisations: Complementary Partnership or International Rivalry?” analyses the dimensions of cooperation and competition between the international and regional levels in managing global crises. Meanwhile, “Smart Diplomacy and its Role in Enhancing Qatar’s National Security: An Analytical Study” sheds light on Qatar’s model of employing tools of soft and flexible power within a volatile regional environment.
The issue also includes two studies on internal crises in the Arab world: the first, “Economic Reform in Iraq between Political Challenges and Legal and Administrative Obstacles”, and the second, “Transformations of the Opposition Left in Morocco: Features of Decline within the Political System”. The issue concludes with a review of the book Creativity in Military Complexity: Design, Disruptors and Defiance Forces by Cara Wrigley and Murray Simons, which discusses the transformation of warfare and the evolution of military power concepts in the age of artificial intelligence.
This issue continues Lubab Journal for Strategic Studies’ mission to establish itself as a peer-reviewed research platform offering in-depth analyses of regional and international issues, grounded in strategic awareness of the geographical, political and economic contexts reshaping the world’s power maps.