Підтримати Jesse Marks (Coffee in the Desert)

☕️ Welcome — I’m Jesse.

I run Coffee in the Desert because too many of the world’s biggest shifts live at the edges of our attention. We catch fragments — a headline about China, a crisis in the Middle East, a new tech partnership — but rarely the full, interconnected picture. My work tries to connect those fragments.

For 14 years, I’ve lived, worked, studied, and researched across the Middle East, and for nearly 8 years I’ve traced China’s growing influence in the region as a Schwarzman Scholar, Fulbright researcher, Boren Scholar, Scoville Fellow, and Middle East policy advisor. I’ve worked inside government, alongside humanitarian teams on the ground, and across think tanks and research institutes trying to understand how global power works in practice.

I’ve also spent years in rooms with people from every corner of the world — policymakers, community leaders, diplomats, activists, officers, scholars — many of whom hold views very different from my own. Those conversations matter. They force humility. They remind me that every perspective is shaped by human experience, and that understanding those experiences is essential if we want to grasp the world as it really is. Coffee in the Desert reflects that commitment: to listen, to consider, and to take people seriously even when we disagree.

I launched this newsletter as a space where complex ideas can brew slowly. A place where the Middle East and Asia are understood in relation to each other — historically, politically, economically, and socially. Where analysis and storytelling meet. Where regional politics, field experience, and human narratives all belong in the same conversation.

I’ve chosen not to put a paywall on any of this work because I believe insights, analysis, and dialogue should be accessible to everyone. This project has always been about opening the door — offering context and perspective without requiring people to pay to stay informed.

But if you find value in this mission — if these posts help you understand a rapidly changing world a bit more clearly, or give you context you can’t get from Western or Chinese media alone — I’d be deeply grateful if you’d consider supporting the project.

Your support helps keep this space independent, grounded, thoughtful, and accessible. It fuels fieldwork, interviews, translations, research, and the long-form writing that takes time to get right. Most of all, it helps me keep brewing the kind of analysis that doesn’t just react to the news cycle, but actually explains it.

Thanks for being here. Let’s keep the conversation going. ☕️