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 »
The Arab Spring surely satisfies the three criteria for a black swan event: surprising, historically consequential, and rationalized by hindsight, notes the World Bank’s Elena Ianchovichina, author of Eruptions of… Read more »
Autocratic allies in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, have reportedly been told that the U.S. will not “lecture” them on democracy and human rights. U.S. attempts to explicitly… Read more »
Around 1,000 Indonesians, led by hardline Islamist groups, protested outside parliament on Tuesday as lawmakers approved a presidential decree banning civil organizations deemed to go against the country’s secular… Read more »
A recent news item on the BBC’s English website neatly captured the sharp contrast in how, five years later, various Arab rulers, citizens and non-Arab observers view the popular uprisings… Read more »
Kanan Makiya* has been described as the Arab world’s “Solzhenitsyn” for courageously bearing witness to unspeakable cruelty, notes the Foreign Policy Research Institute. His new critically acclaimed novel, The Rope, is… Read more »
Even in a moment of triumph, China’s president, Xi Jinping, exudes anxiety. Since the Communist Party gave Mr. Xi the exalted title of “core leader” last week, it has built… Read more »
In the search for a new social contract that establishes wider consensus-based political legitimacy, North African elites must be willing to simultaneously undertake openings and reforms in the political arena… Read more »
Repression and the incompetence of Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi are stoking the next uprising, The Economist argues: As our briefing on young Arabs sets out (see Briefing), the Middle East is where… Read more »
The struggle over the future of Islam is not taking place within the West or between the West and Islam, argues Carl Gershman, the President of the National Endowment for… Read more »