Frederick Deknatel
LightNews LightNews
banner
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
Frederick Deknatel
@freddydeknatel.bsky.social
2.4K followers 3.2K following 2.3K posts
Journalist, fellow at Century International, editor of Hidden Cities: https://hiddencities.substack.com/

Previously: Founding executive editor, Democracy in Exile @dawnmenaorg.bsky.social; managing editor @wpr.bsky.social; staff editor @foreignaffairs.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
I don’t think we need to wait for history’s judgement to know the answer to this one.
A question for history will be whether Putin entertained this approach in the interest of ending the war, or as a ploy to pacify the U.S. while prolonging a conflict he believes is his place in history to slowly, ineluctably win.
November 29, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Frederick Deknatel
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
"For all their utopian dreams, the megaprojects championed by MBS don’t signal the future, but the trap represented by Saudi Arabia’s political economy."

Megaproject fiascos, an overdrawn sovereign wealth fund and speculative, crony real estate schemes won’t create MBS's “thriving economy.”
But behind these undeniable social changes is the specter of economic failure rising from giant, doomed construction sites like Neom. For all their utopian dreams, the megaprojects championed by MBS don’t signal the future, but rather the trap represented by Saudi Arabia’s political economy—misallocating resources and investing state funds on white elephant development projects, so many of which are based on speculative, luxury real estate, rather than on social services, like education or public health, or needed public infrastructure that would serve most Saudis. Indeed, it is a trap that much of the Middle East has fallen into. MBS’ vaunted Vision 2030 development agenda was not just a plan to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy. It was a way to concentrate power in the crown prince’s hands and manufacture a personalist regime around him, something his father and previous Saudi kings, who vested their authority in the monarchy itself, never really constructed. But Vision 2030 was also a bet that Saudi Arabia could “transform itself into a real-estate empire,” as Colin Powers, a senior fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Program at Noria Research, has argued. This is what really underpins Neom and MBS’ other vanity projects: vast speculative real estate, modeled on Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates, which the Saudis see as both their partner and rival. When MBS talks of turning Riyadh into a new Dubai, this is what he means: A Saudi economy transitioned away from oil, according to Vision 2030, but with real estate as its new engine of growth.
November 25, 2025 at 2:22 PM
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
"For all their utopian dreams, the megaprojects championed by MBS don’t signal the future, but the trap represented by Saudi Arabia’s political economy."

Megaproject fiascos, an overdrawn sovereign wealth fund and speculative, crony real estate schemes won’t create MBS's “thriving economy.”
But behind these undeniable social changes is the specter of economic failure rising from giant, doomed construction sites like Neom. For all their utopian dreams, the megaprojects championed by MBS don’t signal the future, but rather the trap represented by Saudi Arabia’s political economy—misallocating resources and investing state funds on white elephant development projects, so many of which are based on speculative, luxury real estate, rather than on social services, like education or public health, or needed public infrastructure that would serve most Saudis. Indeed, it is a trap that much of the Middle East has fallen into. MBS’ vaunted Vision 2030 development agenda was not just a plan to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy. It was a way to concentrate power in the crown prince’s hands and manufacture a personalist regime around him, something his father and previous Saudi kings, who vested their authority in the monarchy itself, never really constructed. But Vision 2030 was also a bet that Saudi Arabia could “transform itself into a real-estate empire,” as Colin Powers, a senior fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Program at Noria Research, has argued. This is what really underpins Neom and MBS’ other vanity projects: vast speculative real estate, modeled on Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates, which the Saudis see as both their partner and rival. When MBS talks of turning Riyadh into a new Dubai, this is what he means: A Saudi economy transitioned away from oil, according to Vision 2030, but with real estate as its new engine of growth.
November 25, 2025 at 2:22 PM
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
Part travelogue, part global news brief, Hidden Cities is a magazine that illuminates the world at a time when too many are looking inward, away from it. Subscribe! hiddencities.substack.com
Hidden Cities | Frederick Deknatel | Substack
Part travelogue, part global news brief, Hidden Cities is a magazine that illuminates the world. Click to read Hidden Cities, by Frederick Deknatel, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers...
hiddencities.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:22 PM
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
Shouting this from the rooftops: bsky.app/profile/fred...
freddydeknatel.bsky.social Frederick Deknatel @freddydeknatel.bsky.social · 9d
Sarah Hurwitz is not alone among prominent Democrats in blaming social media rather than the war. She suggests video of "carnage in Gaza" is somehow not real—that it "smashes our young people's brains all day long" and prevents "data and information and facts" about Israel from breaking through.
ladyemily.nebula.tv Lady Emily ☄️ @ladyemily.nebula.tv · 10d
Sharing the video of this because it’s such a ghoulish thing to say that I’m honestly in disbelief that I even heard her properly
November 24, 2025 at 5:25 PM
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
The one time Borowitz actually landed a joke.
bsky.app/profile/boro...
borowitzreport.bsky.social The Borowitz Report @borowitzreport.bsky.social · 6d
Rubio Admits Difficulties in Translating US Peace Plan from the Original Russian
November 23, 2025 at 11:08 PM