Mosul highlights ‘post-conflict bipolar disorder’
What the Mosul operation should be making obvious is that whoever gets to the gaps in governance and civil society first and best will win the epic struggles of identity… Read more »
Search Results for: development
Ethiopia pullout aids comeback by Somalia’s Al-Shabab
The resurgence of Al-Shabab, Somalia’s Islamic extremists allied to al-Qaida, could affect Somalia’s plans to hold elections next month and further destabilize what is already one of the world’s most… Read more »
West’s ‘China fantasy’ a conceptual failure and strategic blunder
A top-level meeting of the ruling Chinese Communist Party has endorsed President Xi Jinping as a “core” leader, giving him equal billing with late supreme leaders Deng Xiaoping and Mao… Read more »
A post-ISIS recovery plan for Syria?
With the Iranians and the Russians fully backing Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, it’s clear that the chances of regime change anytime soon are zero. Assuming that Raqqa will be liberated… Read more »
Does culture affect foreign policy – and democratization?
Western ideas—which many in the West believe are universal—collide with the ideals of Middle Eastern societies in ways that aren’t always obvious, argues Steven Cook, a Fellow for Middle… Read more »
Jordan: redefining civil society
A younger generation of educated activists in Jordan is attempting to navigate the middle ground between maintaining the status quo and pushing for regime change – neither of which is… Read more »
Kremlin’s modus operandi – ideology or kleptocracy?
As the Kremlin gears up for Vladimir Putin’s last re-election bid in 18 months, anti-graft crusader Alexei Navalny (left) has emerged as the conduit of choice for rival factions to… Read more »
What chance for democracy in the Middle East?
There are many lessons to take from the Iraq debacle, notes Gerard Russell, who served as an assistant to Iraq’s first elected prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, in 2005. The postwar… Read more »
China’s ‘totalitarian’ plan to organize society on big data
Imagine a world where an authoritarian government monitors everything you do, amasses huge amounts of data on almost every interaction you make, and awards you a single score that measures… Read more »
The future of Arab reform: beyond autocrats and Islamists
The argument for democratic reform in the Middle East seems harder to make today, despite the evidence for it being clearer, than it was when the Arab Spring sprung, argues… Read more »