North Africa

Taking a Back Seat as a New Generation Emerges

By Sarah El Sirgany

“In prison, a woman guard stripped us naked for the search. She put her hand where she wanted. Those who objected or cried were searched again. She told us, ‘You brought this on yourselves and now I have to search you again’,” Salsabeel El Gharbawy, a 20-year-old Al-Azhar student told me in a hushed voice […]

Navy SEAL Action Behind Words in Support of Libyan Institutions

By Karim Mezran

In the early hours of Monday, March 17 in the Mediterranean, US Navy SEALS seized the tanker that just a few days earlier infamously loaded illicitly-obtained oil from an eastern oil field and escaped from Libyan authorities. Many have decried the move, authorized by President Barack Obama, as a breach of Libyan sovereignty and a […]

This is Egypt: New Voices, Untold Stories

Since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, a wave of nationalist fervor has swept over Egypt. Calls for Defense Minister Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi to run for president grow while the state has largely silenced dissident political voices throughout the country. The Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East hosted a panel […]

The Arab Countries in Transition: Three Years On [Video]

By EgyptSource

Following the release of the report, The State of the Arab Transitions, Mirette F. Mabrouk, Deputy Director with the Rafik Hariri Middle East Center, speaks about the Arab countries in transition, and the overall sense of hope resilient that the demands of the uprisings that swept the region will be met. 

The Week in Egypt [March 17, 2014]

By Daniel Stoker

Catch up on the latest out of Egypt every week, with analysis, news updates, photos, videos, and more.

Yesterday an Enemy, Today a Friend?

By Amira Mikhail

The nuanced, complicated-nature, and symbolic defeat of a theological state that came with June 30 has left most Christians in Egypt ironically and dangerously excited, hopeful, and confident in the current government and more precisely, Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Egypt’s Prospects for Economic Growth [Video]

By EgyptSource

Following the release of The Economic Consequences of the Arab Spring, Mohsin Khan, senior fellow with the Rafik Hariri Middle East Center, speaks on Egypt’s prospects for economic growth. Khan gives a somewhat optimistic outlook for Egypt’s economic growth due to financing coming from the Gulf countries, which Khan says, is helping the nation stabilize its […]

Libya: A Tanker, a Fallen Prime Minister, and a Transition in Question

By Karim Mezran and Lara Talverdian

Months of political wrangling in Libya between an enfeebled government and a fractured legislature culminated this week in a vote by the General National Congress (GNC) to remove Prime Minister Ali Zeidan from office. Zeidan spent much of his tenure on the defensive, accumulating political baggage that stifled any chance of relegitimizing the state.