Mubarak’s legacy – Arab Spring’s failure?
Hosni Mubarak, the autocratic ruler of Egypt whose nearly 30 years in power came to an abrupt, bloody climax in 2011 after a popular revolt swept across the Arab world,… Read more »
Category: Islamists
Beyond Interests vs. Ideals? Advancing democracy in the ‘Arab Winter’
Tunisia’s interior regions have been a wellspring for social protests. Without deep economic restructuring, populists could pose an even graver threat to the country’s nascent democracy, argues analyst Hamza Meddeb…. Read more »
Iran’s ‘Chernobyl’ moment? U.S. pursuing strategy of ‘regime disruption’
There have been fresh protests in Tehran more than three days after the Iranian authorities admitted they accidentally shot down a Ukrainian airliner on January 8, killing 176 people, RFE/RL’s… Read more »
People, Processes and Politics: Countering violent extremism in fragile states
Radical Islamist extremist violence is wracking the fragile state of Burkina Faso and spreading east, The Washington Post reports: Nearly 1,000 civilians were killed in 2019 by local militias and… Read more »
Course Correction? Saudi Arabia’s export of Salafist ideology
Throughout 2016 and 2017, statements from Riyadh suggested that Saudi Arabia might be on the verge of reorienting its decades-long promotion of Salafism around the world, according to a… Read more »
Iran ‘a powder keg’: Protests ‘strike at heart of regime’s legitimacy’
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard threatened the U.S. and its allies Monday as he addressed a pro-government demonstration attended by tens of thousands of people denouncing last week’s… Read more »
Turkish attack endangers Kurds’ resilient ‘democratic experiment’
The Turkish attack on Syria endangers a remarkable democratic experiment by the Kurds, argues James L. Gelvin, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Syrian… Read more »
The ‘real anti-system candidate’ set to curb foreign funds, remake Tunisian politics
Law professor Kais Saied, an independent candidate who did little campaigning, was projected to win a landslide victory (The FT reports, HT:CFR) in the country’s presidential election. Saied, a social… Read more »
Iraq’s ‘wobbly democracy faces most dangerous moment yet’
The streets of Baghdad were silent Tuesday after a week of peaceful protests — against corruption, unemployment and lack of basic services — turned deadly. More than 100 people were… Read more »
Great power competition in MENA follows ‘ineffectual’ democracy promotion?
Over the last few years, a crisis of legitimacy has beset the liberal international order. In the context of global reassessment, the configuration of regional orders has come into question,… Read more »