Category: Middle East/North Africa

Inclusive, rights-respecting governance in Libya?

     

Interested in promoting inclusive and rights-respecting governance in Libya? The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) is seeking proposals with the objective of preventing… Read more »

Islamist ideology, not Islam as theology, key to combatting extremism

     

Kosovo police said on Thursday that they prevented simultaneous attacks by the Islamic State group, including on the Israeli national football team that played a World Cup qualifier in neighboring… Read more »

Egypt NGO bill ‘effectively eradicates civil society’

     

Egypt has never been a welcoming place for civil society groups, but the past several years have seen an unrelenting crackdown on non-governmental organizations, note Nancy Okail and Allison L…. Read more »

Egypt protests highlight cash crisis

     

For days, hundreds of students have been marching through the palm-dotted campus of the university, demanding a cap on their tuition. The demonstrations are the largest and longest-running at the… Read more »

Capitalizing on Tunisia’s Transition

     

Following an unprecedented period of political consensus building, Tunisia and its international partners have launched a new coordination mechanism to boost long-term investment and facilitate private-sector growth, notes a new… Read more »

Remembering Lebanon’s disappeared

     

Lebanon today mourned the death of Ghazi Aad, founder of the Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile group, The Daily Star reports: Thousands of people went missing during the… Read more »

The Islamic State: Between Aspirations and Reality

     

“Democracy is stronger than organizations like ISIS,” U.S. President Barack Obama said today, using one of the names for Islamic State. Democracy is why the United States welcomes “people of… Read more »

Real security: Governance and stability in the Arab world

     

The breakdown of regional order in the Middle East was driven by domestic crises in the relationship between Arab citizens and their governments, but the resulting disorder has unleashed civil… Read more »

Libya: time for a reset?

     

Libya may descend into a “free-fall” if the peace process among its myriad of political actors is not “reset”, a new report warns. An accord between rival factions reached last… Read more »

Beyond Dysfunction and Devastation: Iraq, the Arab Spring, and Lessons for Today

     

Kanan Makiya* has been described as the Arab world’s “Solzhenitsyn” for courageously bearing witness to unspeakable cruelty, notes the Foreign Policy Research Institute. His new critically acclaimed novel, The Rope, is… Read more »