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MENASource

Nov 8, 2016

Floating the Egyptian Pound – Finally

By Mohsin Khan and Elissa Miller

On August 11 this year, the Egyptian government, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), and an International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team reached an agreement on a three-year economic program under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility worth $12 billion. The announcement of the agreement was greeted with considerable fanfare, as it showed Egypt was ready, […]

North Africa

MENASource

Nov 8, 2016

What the Loss of Mosul Will Mean for ISIS

By Mona Alami

As Iraqi forces continue to push further into the Islamic State’s bastion in Mosul, the looming loss of this key city heralds the end of the Islamic caliphate as a pseudo state. The organization, however, may survive as an insurgency and more importantly through the continuity of its “ideological caliphate.”

Iraq Syria

MENASource

Nov 1, 2016

Anbar’s Iraqi Policemen: Between ISIS and a Hard Place

By Kamal al-Ayash, NIQASH

There have been plenty of calls for families who were displaced by the security crisis caused by the Islamic State group to return home, once their territories have been cleared of the extremists. But in the central province of Anbar, it seems that not everybody is welcome.

Iraq

MENASource

Oct 28, 2016

The Reality of Israel-Egypt Relations

By Moran Stern

While Israeli-Egyptian relations can be best described as “cold peace,” the security establishments in both countries have, in fact, developed impressive levels of cooperation in recent years. The outbreak of the so-called Arab Spring and the Egyptian revolution (or revolutions) that followed it have contributed to even closer relations between the states’ leaderships.

Israel North Africa

MENASource

Oct 25, 2016

Understanding Recent Egypt-Saudi Tensions

By Elissa Miller

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi recently gave a series of interviews to state-owned newspapers, his second such series of interviews with official press in the past three months. The interviews came on the heels of two votes in the United Nations Security Council on resolutions on Syria submitted by France and Russia, respectively. While Egypt […]

North Africa Saudi Arabia

MENASource

Oct 17, 2016

900th Day in Prison for Founders of NGO for Street Children

By Khaled Dawoud

900 days since her arrest, Aya Hijazi remains in prison. While Egypt and the United States exchanged critical statements over the case of the dual Egyptian-American national in September, she, her husband, Mohamed Hassanein, and six other detainees, remain among those who have exceeded the limit of Egypt’s two-year pretrial detention period. 

North Africa

MENASource

Oct 17, 2016

GERD: Politics and the Art of Possibility

By Mohamed Mahmoud

Egyptian officials, faced with the reality of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam are meeting the potential risks with mixed views on how to respond. Some believe that Egypt should be firm about the dam, which according to experts, represents a danger to the country’s water security. Others believe that Egypt could work with the situation […]

Ethiopia North Africa

MENASource

Oct 12, 2016

Behind Erdogan’s Dismissive Statements to Iraq’s Prime Minister

By Aaron Stein

Turkey’s Iraq policy changed considerably in the past half-decade. Turkey has implicitly broken with its “one Iraq” policy and, since 2010, has taken steps to deepen alliances with political actors, committed to the further decentralization—and, in the longer term, break-up—of the Iraqi state. This policy is a sharp departure from Turkey’s history of advocacy for […]

Iraq Turkey

MENASource

Oct 6, 2016

Saving Libya to Defend NATO’s Southern Flank

By Karim Mezran

Roughly 20 years ago, Carlo Maria Santoro, a professor of international relations at Milan and one of Italy’s foremost experts on geopolitics, wrote a book titled, The Risk from the South. He warned of Libya’s centrality to the stability of North Africa and the countries of Southern Europe. He was, at the time, referring to […]

Libya NATO

MENASource

Oct 5, 2016

Morocco’s Upcoming Elections: Gradual Change or More of the Same?

By Sabina Henneberg

Parliamentary elections scheduled for October 7 mark the end of the five-year mandate of Morocco’s current government led by the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD). Approximately 30 political parties will compete for seats in the directly-elected House of Representatives. The secular Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) represents the PJD’s main rival. While important for […]

Morocco