Middle East

The state of Arab transitions: Hope resilient despite many unmet demands

By Mirette F. Mabrouk and Stefanie A. Hausheer

Report authors Mirette F. Mabrouk, deputy director for regional programs, and Stefanie A. Hausheer, assistant director, examine the progress in achieving the original demands of protestors and contend that local actors would embrace greater international support to help facilitate genuine transitions. By examining six key themes—political polarization, constitution-drafting processes, transitional justice, economic progress, civil society […]

Factbox: Egypt’s Brotherhood on Trial

By Sarah Saleeb

As Egypt’s government has moved to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, its leading members have been brought up on multiple charges by the country’s courts. WIth widespread arrests of Brotherhood members and supporters, the judiciary continues to bring new charges against former president Mohamed Morsi, and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood from which […]

The Price of Pulling Back From the World

By Stephen Sestanovich, New York Times

So what’s a retrenchment president to do? If Eisenhower, Nixon and Bush — our best prepared foreign-policy presidents — found it hard to manage a downsized strategy, Mr. Obama should expect the same.

Dispatch: A Critical Time for Libya

By Karim Mezran

The February 7 deadline for the General National Congress (GNC) has passed with news trickling in of a handful of legislators resigning in protest but no significant movement to shake the country out of its political paralysis and regenerate momentum for its transition to democracy. The streets, however, are grumbling as political maneuvers continue.

A Threefold Regression of Knowledge, Information and Rational Thought

By Amr Hamzawy

The situation in Egypt since July 2013 has given rise to many negative phenomena, which defenders of democracy must dismantle, contain, confront or resist. One of the most significant of these phenomena has been a threefold regression: a regression in the value of knowledge, the declining importance of information and the marginalization of rational thought […]

Iran Revolution Commemoration Exposes Insecurity

By Barbara Slavin

Someday, Feb. 11 may be celebrated in Iran as a normal national holiday, akin to France’s Bastille Day or the US Fourth of July. Alas, judging from this year’s official festivities, the anniversary of the 1979 revolution remains the occasion for a show of propaganda rather than a reflection of Iran’s hard-won independence.

In Homs, UN Convoy Meets Syria’s Total War

By Alex Simon

By Syrian standards, the violence in the Old City of Homs this weekend was nothing out of the ordinary. Fourteen were killed and dozens injured as mortar shells and sniper fire targeted international vehicles seeking to evacuate civilians and deliver aid to thirteen neighborhoods that have been under government siege for nearly a year and […]

A Mideast Watershed: The End of US Domination?

A 35-Year Pax Americana is waning, says former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren The recent years’ decline of US power and assertiveness in the Middle East has created a power vacuum there that may end 35 years of American pre-eminence in the region, said Michael Oren, Israeli historian and former ambassador to the United States. “While […]