Thousands gathered Monday in Tunisia’s capital as the country marked eight years since a democratic uprising ousted its long-time strongman. The rally came amid deepening economic troubles in the… Read more »
U.S. disengagement from the daily irritations of Middle East politics has encouraged Arab allies—particularly Saudi Arabia—to adopt more aggressive foreign policies, which has in turn required an ideological language for… Read more »
Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi’s hosting of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman caused much discontent and led to large-scale civil society protests in the streets of Tunis, reports suggest…. Read more »
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 »
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 »
If we fail to learn from the past, we do so at our own peril. That was one of the messages from the Chinese artist-activist Ai Weiwei to a gathering… Read more »
Speaking at the Athens Democracy Forum, author Yascha Mounk [a contributor to the National Endowment for Democracy’s Journal of Democracy] gives his recommended reading to anyone seeking an introduction to what… Read more »
The political and social upheaval ignited by the Arab uprisings shows little sign of abating, the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) notes. U.S. and international policymakers continue to struggle… Read more »
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 »
Politics today is defined less by economic or ideological concerns than by questions of identity. All over the world, political leaders have mobilized followers around the idea that their dignity… Read more »