Middle East

Yemen: A View from Marib

By Nadwa Al-Dawsari

It has now been more than a year since Ahmed Ashulaif, a distinguished fifty year-old businessman and tribal leader from Marib, put his business on hold. Since then, he has fought to stop the Houthis, a Zaydi-Shia rebel group that took control of Yemen’s capital and ousted its government in September 2014.

Egypt’s Responsibility in the Mediterranean Refugee Crisis

By Mohamed Abdel Salam

As the season of migration via the Mediterranean begins, public policy discussions by Egyptian authorities on Syrian refugees have become increasingly important. Since the start of the year, over 1,750 refugees have died making the treacherous journey, attempting to leave the coasts of Africa for a better future in Europe. Syrians by far outnumber any […]

Tunisia’s Security Sector and Countering Violent Extremism; Part II: The Police State, Six Years On

By Fadil Aliriza

In 2009, the US Ambassador to Tunisia wrote in a cable later published by Wikileaks, “Tunisia is a police state,” where the ruling regime used the police to protect itself rather than citizens.

US-led Coalition Needs to Rethink Its Anti-Jihadist Strategy in Syria

By Faysal Itani

Insurgents captured the strategically important town of Jisr al Shughour from regime forces on April 25. This followed a rebel takeover of the provincial capital of Idlib, a mere few weeks earlier. Significantly, while only one of many members of the coalition that took Idlib and Jisr al Shughour, the Nusra Front played a critical […]

Is Assad Losing Control?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Atlantic Council report suggests more US support for ‘nationalist opposition’ in Syria Iran has fueled the war in Syria by providing a steady stream of assistance to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but his regime is gradually losing control, says Robert S. Ford, a former US Ambassador to Syria. “I think we would have been able […]

What’s Next for Egypt’s Military and Media Moguls?

By Miriam Berger

It’s just past three o’clock in December and the Dot Masr office is bustling. Dozens of twenty-something Egyptians tap away at desktop computers in the website’s open newsroom in the two-story office in Garden City, Cairo — prime real estate. 

Defeating the Jihadists in Syria: Competition before Confrontation

On Tuesday, April 28, 2015, the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East released Fellow Faysal Itani’s issue in focus, “Defeating the Jihadists in Syria: Competition before Confrontation,” and hosted a discussion on nationalist or moderate insurgent forces in Syria, the problems that they currently face, and prospects of strengthening these forces. Kim […]