Another Arab Spring? Not if, but when
The social history of the MENA region is a history of social mobilization and the emergence of civil society. Across the Arab world, ordinary citizens have collectively engaged in resistance,… Read more »
Category: Lebanon
Protest to politics? Lessons & narratives from Lebanon’s 2018 elections
Last year, elements of civil society ran against the established traditional political parties in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, drawing on the experience of the 2016 Beirut Madinati (“Beirut is my City”)… Read more »
Arab Spring: the sequel?
The mantra of the Arab Spring is back. Protesters in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and the Palestinian territories [and Sudan] have demanded better governance of late, prompting talk of… Read more »
Transatlantic democracies in rift over strategy to counter Iran’s ‘malign activities’
The Iran-Saudi rivalry, which, since 2011, has dominated the Middle East and pervaded its wars, can be interpreted in geopolitical and sectarian terms, notes Katerina Dalacoura, associate professor of international… Read more »
Shared vision, ideology drive Iran’s non-state partnerships
The evolution of Iran’s regional strategy post-Arab Spring and its means to execute it – the ‘axis of resistance’ – is the subject of a new CSIS analysis. It explores… Read more »
Mobilizing ‘uncivil society’: how Russia’s 21st Century ‘active measures’ actually work
The Russian government discreetly funded a group of seemingly independent news websites in Eastern Europe to pump out stories dictated to them by the Kremlin, BuzzFeed News and its reporting… Read more »
Arab populism succeeds where civil society fails
In this year’s key parliamentary elections in Iraq and Lebanon, formerly controversial populist figures performed far better than expected and are playing central roles in the scramble to form governments,… Read more »
Arab democracy depends on normalizing Islamist parties
Arab democracy would simply be inconceivable without Islamist participation, writes Brookings analyst Shadi Hamid. That, by itself, should give us pause, particularly at a time when Western democracies appear uninterested or even… Read more »
Limiting change through change: do Middle East elections matter?
Algeria’s regime has shown a capacity to distribute political and economic resources in a controlled manner. This allows it to “create an appearance of change and pluralism that has allowed… Read more »
Democracy vs. clientelism, sectarianism in Lebanon elections
It will take more than one election cycle to get democracy to satisfy the expectations of the Lebanese people, according to Louisa Slavkova and Rob Norris, who served as National… Read more »