Middle East

Egypt after July 3: A Crossroads for Democracy

By Amr Hamzawy

Over the past several months, the democratization movement in Egypt has been at a crossroads. Since July 3, countless secular political parties and movements have stood under their liberal and leftist banners, among them Communists, Socialists, Nasserists, and Arab Nationalists, in support of a military intervention into politics. They supported the removal of an elected […]

Denial Not a Good Plan

By Richard LeBaron

The political impasse in Bahrain has certain similarities to the recent bewildering lack of constructive politics in Washington—clinging to hard-line positions, the inability to find areas of compromise, and deliberate exaggeration in the media. And some figures in both countries do not seem much interested in finding ways to move forward.

US to Allies: NATO May be Asked to Assist in Destroying Chemical Weapons in Syria

By Chuck Hagel, Department of Defense

Today we held the first defense ministerial meeting in several years of the NATO-Russia Council.

Syria: The London 11 on Geneva

By Frederic C. Hof

The London 11 core group of the Friends of the Syrian People on October 22 took aim at giving a very skeptical opposition Syrian National Coalition a basis for attending a Geneva peace conference (Geneva 2) in late November.

The Muslim Brotherhood: A New Ban

By Yussef Auf

With the issuing of the September 23 ruling by the Cairo Court for Urgent Affairs, banning the Muslim Brotherhood group’s activities and confiscating its funds, the group has entered a new phase. On October 2, the Egyptian cabinet issued a decision forming a committee to handle and execute the ruling, and to ascertain the number […]

Assassination Pushes Libya Towards Civil War

By Chris Stephen, Guardian

Violence between radical militias and regular forces broke out on Friday night and continued yesterday [Saturday], while the capital Tripoli is braced for fallout from the kidnapping earlier this month of prime minister Ali Zaidan.

A Conversation on the Egyptian Constitution

The Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East hosted His Excellency Amr Moussa, president of the Egyptian Constituent Assembly, via Skype from Cairo to discuss the latest developments in Egypt’s constitution writing process. Moussa began by highlighting the various challenges that Egypt faces, emphasizing that it is fighting its own war on terrorism. […]

Syria: Is it Too Late To Do Anything?

By Frederic C. Hof

Those who have long counseled against the United States taking control of the arming of Syrian opposition forces have recently updated their argument: it is now simply too late for Washington to do anything useful, even if it wanted to.