Middle East

Shifting Political Alliances: Are Gains from Yemen’s National Dialogue Slipping?

Three years after Yemen adopted the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative, the country is slowly moving forward with its transition process. However, internal and external factors threaten to impede the country’s progress. On Wednesday, July 31, 2014, the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East hosted Mohammed Almaitami, chairman of the Khobara Center […]

Hearing Reveals US State Department has not Adapted to New Egypt Realities

By Elissa Miller

Civil society organizations and nongovernmental organization (NGOs) in Egypt are in a crisis. In late June, the Ministry of Solidarity presented a restrictive new NGO draft law that would severely restrict the formation, activities, and funding of NGOs. Egypt’s repressive climate for NGOs, however, is not new. In December 2011, the Egyptian authorities, objecting to […]

Poverty and Conflict in the Middle East

By Matthew Timmerman

From its outset, the self-immolation of a crestfallen Tunisian vegetable vendor, the Arab Spring was largely about poverty. Mohamed Bouazizi’s final words before igniting himself and the region were, “How do you expect me to make a living?”