Category: Middle East/North Africa

Iran polarized ahead of pseudo-election

     

After an unexpectedly close race between President Hassan Rouhani, the pragmatic incumbent, and hardline challenger Ebrahim Raisi (left), ordinary Iranians on the eve of the vote appeared united only in… Read more »

Iran election exposes Islamic Republic’s façade and true face

     

The presidential election in Iran this Friday is being billed as yet another contest in which a spirited but ineffectual reformer is fighting it out with a hard-boiled theocrat. Meanwhile,… Read more »

Observing the decline of Turkey’s democracy

     

Several recent analyses depict Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is set to meet with President Trump in the White House on Tuesday, as a once moderate and liberal politician… Read more »

Authoritarians mobilizing illiberal non-state actors against democratic forces

     

Authoritarian regimes are mobilizing and orchestrating ‘uncivil’ society groups and illiberal non-state actors against democratic forces, reports suggest. The uniformed men who shot Venezuelan pro-democracy demonstrator Carlos Moreno were not… Read more »

How to tackle al Qaeda’s resurgent threat

     

The most formidable al Qaeda franchises have embedded themselves within complex local conflicts in failing states such as Somalia, Yemen and Syria, notes Ali Soufan, the author of “Anatomy of… Read more »

Free expression advocates recognized

     

Efforts to promote free expression around the world were recognized at last night’s 2017 Freedom of Expression Awards. Index on Censorship presented awards in four categories: arts, campaigning, digital activism… Read more »

Turkey’ s Erdogan perfects new authoritarians’ playbook

     

Turkey’ s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected criticism by monitors who say the referendum campaign fell short of international standards, the BBC reports: The observers said Mr Erdogan had… Read more »

Locate middle ground between autocrats and extremists in Syria

     

Six years after the outbreak of Syria’s civil war, the parties involved, whether aligned with the Assad regime, the Sunni jihadists, or others, have increasingly wielded extreme tactics to pursue… Read more »

Egypt’s Sisi unlikely to get more assistance

     

The April 9 killing of 49 Coptic Christian worshippers in two suicide bombings in Tanta and Alexandria was generally portrayed in media outlets as a setback for Egypt‘s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi… Read more »

Erdoğan As Autocrat: A Very Turkish Tragedy

     

In just over a decade, the Republic of Turkey has gone from a period of promising political liberalization to fast-approaching one-man rule under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, notes a new… Read more »