Fifth World Water Forum: Paper Tiger or Path for Progress on Mideast Water Crisis?
DEVELOPMENTS From March 16 th to March 22 nd , representatives from private industry and international organizations, activists, and government officials – in sum a…
A Dispute Not Settled
DEVELOPMENTS A series of Israeli construction projects in West Bank settlements drew world attention this summer, further derailing the stagnant Israeli-Palestinian…
A Return to Normalcy? The Restoration of Iraq’s Marshlands
DEVELOPMENTS Life has improved for Iraq’s Marsh Arabs, or Ma’adan since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. No longer threatened with the complete destruction of…
Accounting for the Uncountable: Resettling Iraq's Refugees
DEVELOPMENTS As the situation in Iraq improves , attention and resources are shifting elsewhere. However, the problems facing the 1-2 million Iraqi refugees , and…
Confronting Iran: Addressing the Need for a Coherent Foreign Policy
DEVELOPMENTS Rhetoric between Tehran and Washington is heating up again. The situation is tense as President George W. Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud…
Confronting Iran: The Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Regime
Ever since the Muslim Brotherhood won nearly 20% of the vote and88 seats in the fall 2005 parliamentary elections, the Egyptianregime has launched a sustained…
Education in Afghanistan
DEVELOPMENTS Afghanistan’s history is a complex and violent one marked by a series of foreign evasions and occupations. The twentieth century history of Afghanistan…
Engaging the Middle East: The View from Washington
DEVELOPMENTS The Obama presidency begins at a time of great challenge and great opportunity in the Middle East . Iran continues to pursue nuclear weapons ,…
Fashionistas Dress Down the Taliban - The Triple Assault
DEVELOPMENTS On November 4th, 2009, Fashion Pakistan launched the country’s first Fashion Week. The four-day event, taking place during an army offensive in South…
Identity Crisis in Pakistan
DEVELOPMENTS Pakistan is at war: after decades of ambivalence the Pakistan Army has engaged the spawn of its Cold War tryst with the USA, the Taliban, in a…
Ikhwan: The Muslim Brotherhood
DEVELOPMENTS During the spring of 2007, the Bush administration began expanding its diplomatic engagement with independently elected Muslim Brotherhood officials in…
Iran and the Next Administration
DEVELOPMENTS Over the course of the Presidential campaign, John McCain and Barack Obama have clashed repeatedly over US policy toward Iran. McCain has staked…
Iran: Nuclear World Order
DEVELOPMENTS Iran’s recent test launch of nine long-range missiles is making its neighbors nervous. To make matters worse, attempts to dissuade Iran from…
Iraq and its Discontents
Reports from Iraq indicate that violence has abated recently . The decrease in casualties has even prompted some refugees to return to their homes in Baghdad . Many…
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process (Preview)
DEVELOPMENTS In a matter of weeks, President Bush will host the most direct diplomatic initiative in the Israeli Palestinian conflict since he took office . The…
Nurturing Enterprise (and Employment) in the Middle East
DEVELOPMENTS Following the recent Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship , the Obama administration’s focus has shifted to utilizing public-private partnerships…
Re-thinking the U.S.-Syria Trade Relationship
DEVELOPMENTS During and after his campaign, President-elect Barack Obama promised to engage early in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. If he keeps his…
SPECIAL FEATURE: The Arrest of the World's Most Wanted Man
DEVELOPMENTS Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade, Serbia, on July 21 after more than a decade in hiding. There have been riots and protests in…
Sunni-Shiite Tensions Flare in Egypt-Hizbullah Dispute
DEVELOPMENTS Abdel-Magid Mohammed has had a busy two weeks. On April 8th, Mohammed, who is Egypt’s public prosecutor, announced he and his staff were…
The Different Roles of Arab Women in Conflicts
DEVELOPMENTS Iraqi women face a bleak future. A recent survey by the BBC shows that the status of women in Iraq has deteriorated significantly since the March 2003…
The Future of Saudi Oil
DEVELOPMENTS The Middle Eastern economy has thrived on oil profits since the 20th century, with six Middle Eastern states making the list of the world’s top 15 oil…
The Iranian Opposition: Taking Stock Eight Months Later
DEVELOPMENTS In June 2009, I witnessed hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters amassed in and around Enghelab (revolution) Square demanding to have their…
The Iraq Barometer: Sobering Milestones Frame the Conflict on the Ground
March 19, 2008 marked the fifth anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq. Our time there has spanned longer than both World War II (three years, eight…
The Price of Success: Obama’s Efforts to Reform Military Spending in the Midst of Two U.S. Wars
DEVELOPMENTS Speaking before a national Veterans of Foreign Wars convention Monday in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. President Barack Obama had sharp words for members of…
The Role of the Arab World in the Post-2012 Climate Negotiations
DEVELOPMENTS At the end of 2007, countries who signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) started a two-year process to draft a new…
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon Enters Its Second Year of Operations, but Challenges Loom
DEVELOPMENTS Four years after United Nations Security Council Resolution 1664 requested its creation, and more than a year after its first plenary session, the…
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
DEVELOPMENTS In a matter of weeks, President Bush will host the most direct diplomatic initiative in the Israeli Palestinian conflict since he took office . The…
Iran Status Report
BACKGROUND The Iranian presidential election between the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his three challengers, Mir Hussein Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi and Mohsen…
Tough Decisions on Iran: Turkey’s Zero Problems Dilemma
DEVELOPMENTS The Islamic Republic of Iran and E.U. Foreign Policy Chief, Catherine Ashton – representing the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and…
Cyberwar Enters a New Phase: Stuxnet and Iran
DEVELOPMENTS The Stuxnet worm has sounded the alarm of cybersecurity professionals around the world. Stuxnet is the first known malware designed to attack an…
Cyberwar Enters a New Phase: Stuxnet and Iran
DEVELOPMENTS The Stuxnet worm has sounded the alarm of cybersecurity professionals around the world. Stuxnet is the first known malware designed to attack an…
Special Feature: 18 Days That (May Have) Changed the World
In the past two months, the Middle East has changed drastically. The recent acts of protest, demonstration, and revolution throughout the region not only marked a…
“Qat Time” in Yemen
DEVELOPMENTS An ongoing war in the north, a separatist rebellion in the south, and a revolution stirring in the capital-center may not measure up to the imminent…
Osama bin Laden is dead. What does this mean? What happens next?
Osama bin Laden is dead. The news comes almost ten years after the terrorist attack he orchestrated on 9/11. Details are still forthcoming, but late last night…
Syria’s Wealth in the 21st Century: Corruption Leaves Most on the Outside Looking In
DEVELOPMENTS Over the past five years, there has been a startling trend developing in Syria, and one need not spend more than a few hours in central Damascus to…
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
DEVELOPMENTS On January 25, 2011, popular demonstrations calling for reform began in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. From January 28 to February 11, hundreds of thousands of…
Interview of Ambassador Edward M. Gabriel, Former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco
On June 17, 2011, King Mohammed VI of Morocco announced a series of proposed amendments to the country’s constitution. The announcement followed a three-month…
Re-thinking the U.S.-Syria Trade Relationship
DEVELOPMENTS During and after his campaign, President-elect Barack Obama promised to engage early in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. If he keeps his word,…
Statelessness in Kuwait: Kuwait’s Bidoon
DEVELOPMENTS Fresh from its participation in the 8th session of the United Nations’ Periodic Review , a process initiated in 2006 by the UN General Assembly and…
An Israeli-Arab Alliance: Inevitable Reality or Illusion?
DEVELOPMENTS In June, the Saudi government reportedly granted Israel use of Saudi airspace , should Israel decide to conduct air strikes against Iran’s nuclear…
Qatar: An Emerging Player in the Middle East and Beyond
DEVELOPMENTS Qatar’s successful bid to host the World Cup in 2022, announced by FIFA in December 2010, has shined a spotlight on a small nation with a population of…
Room for Compromise: The Iranian Nuclear Negotiations
DEVELOPMENTS Iran and European Union representatives have engaged in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear enrichment program for the better part of the last decade.…
Crash Course
DEVELOPMENTS Iranian workers were not at the forefront of the country’s recent pro-democracy uprising. With a few notable exceptions, that struggle was spearheaded…
To the Kingdom Come – Seeking Energy, Security, and Balance in the Middle East
DEVELOPMENTS From this year forward, longtime U.S. ally Saudi Arabia will supply more oil to China than the U.S. In 2010, the Middle East and Saudi Arabia accounted…