Category: Blogs

Sharia in Egypt? Reality is Somewhere Between Hopes and Fears

By Khaled Saad

Just a few days after assuming executive powers from former president Hosni Mubarak, the newly empowered Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) took a significant but often overlooked step toward building the legal foundation for Egypt’s emerging democracy: forming a committee of legal experts headed by Justice Tarek al-Beshry. Al-Beshry, a former vice chairman […]

NGO Trial Adjourned Until April 26

By Mara Revkin

The trial of 43 Egyptian and international NGO employees began in Cairo on February 26. None of the American citizens among the accused were present at the opening session, reportedly because none of them had received official summons from the court. All present defendants pleaded not guilty to all charges without bail, and were released […]

Syrian opposition receiving equipment from ‘western sources but not western governments’

By Borzou Daragahi, the Financial Times

All NATO staff withdrawn from Afghan ministries after killing of US soldiers

By the BBC

From the BBC:  Two Nato officers have been killed in the interior ministry in the Afghan capital Kabul, coalition officials say.

The U.S. and Denmark – NATO Allies and Global Partners

By the White House

Time to Shave: When Public Safety Trumps Religious Expression

By Tarek Radwan

Those following Egypt’s transition may have stumbled upon one of the more peculiar debates that have emerged among the foot soldiers of the Ministry of Interior: the beard issue. This past week, tensions between policemen and senior ministry officials flared over whether or not police officers could grow their beards. The ban on beards among […]

The Westphalian System and US Defense Policy

By Derek Reveron

Last week, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told an audience at the Atlantic Council that building partnership capacity or security force assistance will remain an important component of US defense policy. The talk was grounded in the 2012 strategic defense guidance that notes “building partnership capacity…remains important for sharing the costs and responsibilities of global leadership. Across the […]

French Left seeks a little distance from U.S. and Germany, but plans to stay in NATO command structure

By John Irish, Reuters

Islamist Presidential Candidate Hospitalized After Carjacking

By Mara Revkin

Presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh was attacked by three masked gunmen in a carjacking incident on February 23. Aboul-Fotouh sustained a concussion while his driver was wounded and both men were hospitalized on February 24. The assailants made away with Fotouh’s car after the overnight carjacking on a Cairo highway.