Where the analysis is built to be tested.
Whitepapers, research briefs, and perspectives drawn directly from active advisory engagements across the region — filterable by industry and topic.
Publications
5 Hidden Cost Leaks in Freight & Customs Operations
Most freight and customs operators don't have a revenue problem — margin is the number that disappears quietly, shipment by shipment, until a full year of small gaps shows up as a total nobody can quite explain. This guide covers the five places margin leaks most consistently — demurrage and detention cadence, HS code discipline, vendor invoice drift, client billing gaps, and FX timing — and the specific reconciliation check that closes each one.
Cross-Border Compliance Complexity in MENA Manufacturing
Manufacturers operating across Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the wider GCC face a regulatory patchwork that changes faster than most internal control frameworks can absorb. This brief maps the compliance obligations that most frequently trigger penalties — and the documentation discipline that prevents them.
Governance Before Succession: A Family Business Risk Framework
Family-owned enterprises across the region are approaching generational transition with succession plans but no governance framework underneath them. This perspective argues that a documented risk and governance structure should precede, not follow, the succession conversation.
Bahrain: Effects on Logistics, Trade, and Construction
Bahrain was among the hardest-hit Gulf states economically, compounding a debt position that already ranked among the most burdened in the world before the war began. Iran struck the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama directly, and the broader Strait of Hormuz crisis, combined with Iranian drone attacks, cut into aluminum and oil exports that together provide more than two-thirds of government revenue.
Iraq: Effects on Logistics, Trade, and Construction
Iraq has emerged across multiple independent analyses as the economy most structurally exposed to this war, with between 90% and 97% of its crude exports historically routed through the Strait of Hormuz and oil accounting for roughly 90% of state budget revenue. A drone attack on a Basra compound housing offices used by the U.S. firm Halliburton underscored how directly the conflict reached Iraq's oil-sector infrastructure, while Iran-aligned strikes on the Kurdistan Region — including Erbil International Airport and the U.S. Consulate there — numbered close to 500 by the time a ceasefire was announced on 8 April 2026.
Jordan: Effects on Logistics, Trade, and Construction
On 28 February 2026, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and triggering a regional war that has killed thousands in Iran and Lebanon and displaced millions across the region. Jordan absorbed more than 200 Iranian drones and missiles aimed at U.S. and local targets on its territory, including one strike that destroyed a THAAD missile-defense radar base.
Qatar: Effects on Logistics, Trade, and Construction
Qatar's Ras Laffan complex, which anchors the country's position supplying roughly a fifth of global LNG trade, was damaged in Iranian drone attacks severe enough to trigger a formal declaration of force majeure — a direct hit to the single largest engine of the Qatari economy rather than a peripheral disruption.
Saudi Arabia: Effects on Logistics, Trade, and Construction
Iran's retaliatory strikes reached Saudi territory directly, hitting areas near the Ras Tanura refinery complex and targets in the Eastern Province, and destroying a U.S. THAAD radar installation on Saudi soil alongside similar strikes in Jordan and the UAE. Riyadh has pursued official restraint and lobbied against further escalation, even as unconfirmed reports describe covert Saudi strikes on Iranian territory in response.
United Arab Emirates: Effects on Logistics, Trade, and Construction
Abu Dhabi took a notably harder public line against Iran than its Gulf neighbors, and Iranian strikes reached Emirati territory directly — a drone intercepted near Dubai was linked to a fire at an Amazon Web Services data center, and a strike on Dubai International Airport ignited a fuel-tank fire that disrupted global air travel routing through the emirate.