Programs

Middle East Programs

Working with our 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.

Libya

Content

MENASource

Feb 10, 2014

Security and Development Needed To Boost Tunisia’s Transition

By Ilana Hosios

Tunisia’s security seems relatively stable, especially when compared to the region. Yet, the reality on the ground is that of an uncertain and increasingly volatile environment.

North Africa

MENASource

Feb 7, 2014

Factbox: Egypt’s Crackdown on Journalists

By EgyptSource

With authorities bringing charges against twenty journalists, among them four foreigners and sixteen Egyptians, the focus has shifted onto the journalists who have been reporting on Egypt’s post-Morsi travails. The story, now known in Egyptian press as the “Marriott Cell” because the journalists were working out of the Marriott Hotel in Zamalek, has garnered significant […]

North Africa

In the News

Feb 6, 2014

Radwan on Egypt’s Economic Woes

By Tarek Radwan

Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East Associate Director Tarek Radwan is quoted in the USA Today on the intersection of Egypt’s economic and political issues:

North Africa

MENASource

Feb 6, 2014

Gamal Abdel Nasser: Method Actor

By Maged Atiya

Marlon Brando, who saw his acting talent as an undesired gift, explained his method as inhabiting the character so thoroughly that all his actions were produced by its logic rather than his thinking. The intimate link between politics and theater has always been with us, Shakespeare wrote of it, the Greek dramatists never missed it, […]

North Africa

MENASource

Feb 6, 2014

Is the Gulf Rethinking Egypt’s Presidency?

By MENASource

Gulf countries have thrown their weight enthusiastically behind Egypt’s military-backed government, but recent signals indicate hesitation over the new Egyptian Field Marshal General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s ascension to the presidency.

North Africa

MENASource

Feb 5, 2014

Egypt’s Presidential Elections: From the Outside Looking In [Part II]

By Nader Bakkar

Despite personal convictions about holding presidential elections first, mentioned in the first part of this article, the nomination of two military candidates, in Minister of Defense Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and former Chief of Staff Sami Anan, has become a foregone conclusion. (At least at the time of writing.) While some candidates may already have garnered […]

Elections North Africa

MENASource

Feb 5, 2014

Dispatch: Deepening Polarization in Libya, No Agreement in Sight

By Karim Mezran

More than two years since Libyans and international forces overthrew longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi, Libya suffers from fragmentation as competing forces vie to fill the power vacuum. An emerging and worrying trend of political blocs within the General National Congress (GNC) forming alliances with certain militia groups—creating new and divisive power centers—threatens to derail the […]

Libya

MENASource

Feb 4, 2014

What Libya Can Learn from Yemen

By Danya Greenfield

Libya-watchers should be encouraged by the initiation of the country’s National Dialogue last month and an election date set for the constitution-making body on February 20, both of which give much-needed positive momentum to lift Libya out of the cycle of violence and recrimination.

Libya Yemen

MENASource

Feb 4, 2014

Egypt’s Silenced Youth

By Rana Muhammad Taha

A look at Tahrir Square on January 25 during the 2011 uprising’s third anniversary would leave one wondering where all the younger protesters who led the movement have gone. Not only was the square packed with army supporters and devoid of any slogans referencing the original revolutionary demands, it included demonstrators holding posters of ousted […]

North Africa
Libyan bomb armed with chemical agent

NATOSource

Feb 3, 2014

US and Partners Complete Destruction of Libya’s Chemical Weapons

By Eric Schmitt, New York Times

Even as the international effort to destroy Syria’s vast chemical weapons stockpile lags behind schedule, a similar American-backed campaign carried out under a cloak of secrecy ended successfully last week in another strife-torn country, Libya.

Libya United States and Canada

Experts