Reform, security and public order in the Middle East
The security situation facing the Middle East is grave and appears to be trending toward greater violence and instability, says a new report. The states of the region have tended… Read more »
Category: Middle East/North Africa
A New Era in Online Engagement in MENA
People in the Middle East and North Africa have greater access to the Internet, technology and online tools and platforms than ever before. At a time when traditional space… Read more »
Myths and realities of Iran’s election
Iranians will go to the polls on February 26 to elect members of the 290-seat parliament and the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, notes Council on Foreign Relations analyst Ray Takeyh…. Read more »
Algeria: ‘birth of a new democracy’?
International media outlets substantially covered news on the recently-endorsed constitutional amendments in Algeria, according to Sasha Toperich and Samy Boukaila of the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins School of… Read more »
Gulf’s next generation of leaders won’t necessarily democratize
After years of being ruled by leaders in their 80s, the Gulf Arab states are getting younger rulers. These young leaders won’t necessarily gravitate to democratization, say RAND analysts Becca… Read more »
Governments can’t win war of words with ISIS
Why is the West not winning the war of words with ISIS and reclaiming the virtual landscape in which radical Islamists openly recruit? asks Jonathan Russell, head of policy… Read more »
Why Libya’s transition failed
The ultimate blame for Libya’s failed transition must lay with Muammar Gaddafi, who bequeathed Libyans a country without a state, notes a leading analyst. Leaders of the new Libya found it… Read more »
Muted Modernists? Saudi Islamists ‘campaign for democracy’
The Saudi regime watched the 2011 Arab Spring unfold across the Middle East with deep unease. As the year progressed, the regime responded by rounding up moderate Islamists because of… Read more »
Arab voices address challenges of New Middle East
Five years after the Arab Spring, the crisis of legitimacy that helped precipitate it has lost neither its resonance nor its urgency, according to a qualitative survey of Arab experts… Read more »
Internet security in the age of the Islamic State
Last month, the State Department revamped its efforts to target online radicalization and recruitment by the Islamic State, and similar initiatives are being undertaken in other countries. For example, Europol… Read more »