The thousands gathering at Europe’s borders, and the thousands who have already crossed, are widely but wrongly supposed to be refugees of an uprising that failed: the Arab spring. In… Read more »
The very fact that the Libya intervention and its legacy have been either distorted or misunderstood is itself evidence of a warped foreign policy discourse in the US, where… Read more »
Simply dismissing the uprisings [of the Arab Spring] as a failure does not capture how fully they have transformed every dimension of the region’s politics, argues Marc Lynch, a… Read more »
Tunisia is the only country to emerge from the Arab revolutions of 2011 as a functioning democracy, notes George Packer. But it has also sent a disproportionately large number… Read more »
Criticizing U.S. missteps in promoting democracy is certainly reasonable—particularly in light of the debacles in Iraq and Libya—but elevating these criticisms into high doctrine and principled critiques of democracy promotion… Read more »
More than five years after the Arab Spring began, the euphoria that accompanied the region’s early uprisings has been replaced by a dogged realism, notes RAND analyst Seth G.Jones. From the indignant graffiti… Read more »
As the global economy transcends borders and Isis raises its flag, could the very nature of “states” be changing? asks Philip Bobbitt, the author of “The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace… Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
