How TV can help fight ISIS
It is not accidental that the Islamic State has taken root in some of the most poorly governed countries in the Muslim world. State-building is an unpopular mission, from which… Read more »
Category: Middle East/North Africa
Global Civic Activism in Flux
For civic activism, it appears to be both the best and worst of times, argues analyst Richard Youngs. The positive dynamics of empowerment and the negative trend of constraints on… Read more »
Legislating authoritarianism in Egypt
Egypt’s new authoritarian regime is rapidly closing the public space—cracking down on autonomous civil society and independent political parties, asphyxiating the practice of pluralist politics, and thwarting citizens’ peaceful and… Read more »
Rebuilding Syria (and Iraq): Reconstruction and Legitimacy
On the sixth anniversary of the Syrian uprising, moderate rebels have never been weaker, analyst Charles Lister writes for Foreign Policy. Within two years of its resurgence, the Islamic State… Read more »
Beyond Daesh: Crisis of Governance and Imperative of Reform
Some 89% of respondents to the annual Arab Opinion Index (AOI) survey expressed negative and very negative views about the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or… Read more »
How Egypt’s activists became ‘Generation Jail’
Six years after the Arab Spring, Egypt’s democracy activists live under constant threat of prison — or worse, notes analyst Joshua Hammer. It was just six years ago that Ahmed… Read more »
How to preserve Tunisia’s fragile democracy
Tunisia’s top diplomat wants the U.S. to “reach out more” to the tiny North African nation for collaboration against the evolving threat posed by the Islamic State — and to… Read more »
Growing threats to civil society
A healthy and functioning civil society is vital for human rights and democracy everywhere, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission writes: Civil society organizations (CSOs) play a crucial role in… Read more »
‘Secularizing Islamists’ – lessons for countering violent extremism
The experience of the Islamic political parties in North Africa shows that they are, just like non-Islamic parties, capable of change and adaptation to changing circumstances, says Mohammed Masbah, an… Read more »
Building democratic alternatives to extremism in Algeria
Algerian law requires the next parliament to be made up of 30 percent women — but political parties across the spectrum have struggled to come up with enough female candidates… Read more »