Category: Arab Spring

Saudis and Iran using sectarian non-state actors to shape Middle East

     

The Saudi-Iran rivalry playing out in the Middle East’s divided societies, such as the ‘proxy arenas’ of Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, and particularly Syria and Yemen, has cultivated sectarian difference that… Read more »

An Arab anomaly? A danger to Tunisia’s democracy 

     

Nidaa Tounes yesterday described a ministerial reshuffle in Tunisia as “a coup against the constitution and democracy in the country,” Middle East Monitor reports: Secretary-General of Nidaa Tounes Slim Riahi… Read more »

The big factor at the heart of Middle East protests

     

In the spring, major protests swept through Jordan over economic grievances and subsidy reforms. In July, protesters took to the streets in the south of Iraq, demanding that the government address persistent unemployment, underdevelopment and corruption, say… Read more »

New social contracts needed for Arab renewal

     

  Since the 2011 uprisings, the relationship between Arab leaders and citizens has been shifting, say Carnegie analysts Intissar Fakir and Sarah Yerkes. While the initial euphoria and hope of… Read more »

Arab world needs democracy, not ‘liberalizing autocrats’

     

In April Jamal Khashoggi gave a speech, saying the dangerous idea of the benevolent autocrat, the just dictator, is being revived in the Arab world, notes The New York Times…. Read more »

Shared vision, ideology drive Iran’s non-state partnerships

     

The evolution of Iran’s regional strategy post-Arab Spring and its means to execute it – the ‘axis of resistance’ – is the subject of a new CSIS analysis. It explores… Read more »

Dissident’s death highlights rise of Saudi ‘mobster state’

     

A bipartisan group of 20 senators have forced an investigation into the fate of Jamal Khashoggi –  a Saudi journalist and U.S. resident who has been missing for more than… Read more »

Building Democracy after Popular Nonviolent Uprisings

     

Nonviolent movements make democratic transitions more likely and lead to stronger democracies, according to a new analysis by Jonathan Pinckney of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict  (downloadable here). Drawing from… Read more »

‘The New Arab Order’: potential for democratic inclusion foreclosed?

     

In 2011, millions of citizens across the Arab world took to the streets, prompting popular uprisings from Tunis to Cairo which promised to topple autocracies and usher in democratic reforms, notes Marc Lynch,… Read more »