The Gulf

Egypt Has No Good Choices in Libya

The recent revelation that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt were behind the previously unidentified warplanes that struck Islamist positions in Libya has sparked questions on Egypt’s role and its potential options for protecting its shared border with the troubled country—and the consequences of doing so.

Special Summit Series: The United Arab Emirates and NATO

By Bilal Y. Saab

The United Arab Emirates has said and done all the right things to prove that it wants a stronger partnership with NATO.

Shifting Political Alliances: Are Gains from Yemen’s National Dialogue Slipping?

Three years after Yemen adopted the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative, the country is slowly moving forward with its transition process. However, internal and external factors threaten to impede the country’s progress. On Wednesday, July 31, 2014, the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East hosted Mohammed Almaitami, chairman of the Khobara Center […]

Poverty and Conflict in the Middle East

By Matthew Timmerman

From its outset, the self-immolation of a crestfallen Tunisian vegetable vendor, the Arab Spring was largely about poverty. Mohamed Bouazizi’s final words before igniting himself and the region were, “How do you expect me to make a living?”

Salvaging What Remains of the Nation State: The Missing Example of Egyptian Democracy

By Amr Hamzawy

Contrary to regimes in other Arab states in the Levant and the Gulf, the Egyptian government has never undermined Arab identity by spreading ideas of a dichotomy between Sunni and Shiite, of a conflict between Sunni-dominated areas and those living in the Shiite crescent, or of a conflict between Arabs and non-Arabs living in the […]