Middle East

With an environmentally-conscious plan and ambitions to lure some of the world's most well-respected institutions, the emirate of Abu Dhabi is on a forward-thinking path and should be watched more closely than its extravagant counterpart, Dubai.

The US Agency for International Development is considering a broad infrastructure project to repair a crumbling dam in Afghanistan as part of an effort to create economic and political stability in a region of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban.

Soon to be the tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai is only a small piece of Dubai's unprecedented and spectacular $100-billion construction boom.

Walls and checkpoints intended to bolster security in Baghdad have made cross-town journeys almost impossible and turned the city into a collection of ghettos that are reinforcing sectarian divisions.

New archaeological findings suggest that ancient Mesopotamian cities did not develop by spreading outward from a central point, but rather by clustering nearby villages into larger cities.

Individual ownership, privately operated services, and professional management are part of the new face of the kibbutz -- Israel's cooperative intentional communities founded on Marxist and socialist principles.

In this interview, urbanist Mike Davis talks about the rapidly growing emirate of Dubai.

War damage, fuel shortages, insurgent attacks and a lack of regional cooperation is leading Iraq's power and water infrastructure towards a state of collapse.

In Damascus, plans to build an eight-lane highway through the middle of what is one of the oldest Arabian cities in the world have upset locals and historians.

A planner and Army Reservist from Florida talks about his time spent working on planning issues in Iraq, and relates it to his experiences as a city planner in the U.S.

Among its many other contributions to urban futurism, Dubai is soon to be the home of the world's largest theme park, Dubailand, which when completed will be larger than all of Orlando, Florida.

LA Times architectural critic Christopher Hawthorne examines the depressing-looking new and massive 104-acre U.S. embassy compound being constructed in Iraq within the 'Green Zone'.

Tom Engelhardt explores the architectural and political significance of the mammoth US embassy construction project in Baghdad.

Scottish adventurer Rory Stewart and the Turquoise Mountain Foundation are striving to preserve and restore the unique qualities of old Kabul as it recovers from decades of war.

Iran reports that it has "no exact report" about Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American urban planning professor and consultant who was detained around May 11 and is now missing.

For Iraqi refugees, finding a place to go is a major challenge. Strict policies in many European countries makes finding asylum difficult, but Sweden has proven to be the most welcoming country.

Western-style suburban developments near Cairo, Egypt, have many concerned that about the loss of local culture.

The Masdar Initiative is billed as the first zero carbon and waste free city to be ever constructed.

Dubai announces that it will be the site of a new $2.2-billion Universal theme park, while neighboring emirate Abu Dhabi announces a comprehensive planning effort called Plan Abu Dhabi 2030.

Certain bus lines in Israel have an informal but strict practice of gender segregation, forcing women to sit in the back of the bus. Many women have protested this separation system, which is mainly enforced by riders in orthodox neighborhoods.