Stay Updated


The latest pieces from MENASource:

Through our Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, the Atlantic Council works with allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.

Content

Event Recap

May 30, 2013

The Kaleidoscope Turns Again in a Crisis-Challenged Iran

On May 30, 2013, the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center released a new issue brief, “The Kaleidoscope Turns Again in a Crisis-Challenged Iran” with a discussion of Iran’s upcoming presidential elections.

Iran

Issue Brief

May 30, 2013

The political kaleidoscope turns again in crisis-challenged Iran: 2013 elections

By Yasmin Alem and Barbara Slavin

In the latest Iran Task Force issue brief, authors Yasmin Alem and Barbara Slavin analyze the political climate leading up to the June elections in Iran.

Iran

MENASource

May 29, 2013

Top News: Yemen Confronts Rising Pressure to Divide

A federal state is likely to emerge from the National Dialogue, but it is questionable whether the new constitution will be ratified in a countrywide referendum in November, as Herak—the Southern secessionist party that has largely boycotted the talks—demanded that Yemen be partitioned into the northern and southern states that existed before unification in 1990.

Yemen

New Atlanticist

May 22, 2013

Crisis in the Sahel: Overview

By Rudolph Atallah

North Africa and the intertwined Sahel, from Egypt to Mauritania, is a region that has undergone profound and destabilizing political and social change in the last several years, especially since the “Arab Spring” of 2011. Nascent political systems, newly empowered non-state actors, and underlying structural problems in the region contribute to an increasingly volatile mix, […]

National Security North Africa

MENASource

May 22, 2013

Yemen’s National Dialogue: Reshaping the Social Contract

By Danya Greenfield and Hazim Al-Eryani

With Yemen’s National Dialogue firmly underway and a recent presidential directive appointing new military commanders, it is an appropriate moment to assess how far Yemen has come in its transition and what remains ahead.

Yemen

Issue Brief

May 21, 2013

Post-revolutionary politics in Libya: Inside the General National Congress

By Karim Mezran, Fadel Laman, and Eric Knecht

In the latest issue brief from the Rafik Hariri Center at the Atlantic Council, “Post-revolutionary Politics in Libya: Inside the General National Congress,” authors Karim Mezran, Fadel Lamen, and Eric Knecht analyze the evolution of Libya’s political landscape since the July 2012 elections for the General National Congress (GNC). In the lead-up to the GNC […]

Libya

New Atlanticist

May 21, 2013

Three Benghazi Myths

By R. Nicholas Burns

The Benghazi controversy’s return to Washington’s raging partisan wars continues to portray our political culture at its worst.

Libya National Security

New Atlanticist

May 17, 2013

Challenges in Measuring Violent Conflict, Syria Edition

By Jay Ulfelder

As part of a larger (but, unfortunately, gated) story on how the terrific new Global Data on Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) might help social scientists forecast violent conflicts, the New Scientist recently posted some graphics using GDELT to chart the ongoing civil war in Syria. Among those graphics was this time-series plot of violent events per […]

National Security Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

May 16, 2013

How Turkey and Israel Could Force US Action in Syria

By Sarah Grebowski and Maksymilian Czuperski

Early this week, the world looked to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a response to the bombings in Reyhanli that killed 47 people and left more than 100 wounded. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Turkey since the 2003 Istanbul bombings, shocking the nation and fueling anxiety over the war in neighboring […]

Security & Defense Syria

New Atlanticist

May 15, 2013

Stand with Our Allies on Syria

By Ross Wilson

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan comes to Washington at a time of domestic crisis over car bombings at Reyhanlı on the Syrian border that killed over 50 and resulted in hundreds of wounded, many seriously. The Turkish public, which has never supported Ankara’s tough line on President Bashar al-Assad, is alarmed. Syria was already […]

Syria Turkey

Experts