Feb 12, 2012
Middle East
Critical QuestionsFeb 8, 2012Q1: How has President Bashar al-Assad of Syria been able to remain in power in the wake of mounting unrest?
A1: A number of local and regional factors have and are likely to continue to enable Assad to hang on to power, at least in the short to medium term.
CommentaryFeb 2, 2012Russia’s opposition to a new UN Security Council resolution calling on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to step down should hardly come as a surprise. Reflecting a series of calculations about the Middle East as well as relations with the West, Moscow has staunchly backed Assad throughout the popular unrest roiling Syria over the past 10 months.
ReportJan 31, 2012Few countries have been as successful as Egypt in parlaying its strategic position into an economic asset. At the nexus of two continents, astride the Suez Canal, and with one-quarter of the Arab world’s entire population, Egypt has made itself an object of interest, and often an object of concern, among the world’s great powers for more than a half-century.
- ReportJan 26, 2012
The Burke Chair at CSIS has developed a new report entitled The Causes of Instability in the Middle East and North Africa, which is available on the CSIS web site at:
http://csis.org/files/publication/120126_MENA_Stability_Slides.pdf
- NewsletterJan 24, 2012
One year ago, the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square proved that Tunisia was not a fluke. Until January 2011, Tunisia didn’t resonate much in the Arab world. It was too small, too Francophile, and too socially liberal.
ReportJan 18, 2012Egypt’s leadership has dashed expectations for a swift and complete shift from autocracy to democracy. The inherent conservatism of Egypt’s military leadership, combined with the political ineffectiveness of many of the activists who were at the center of public protests a year ago, is widening the gap between public expectations of the post-Mubarak era and its reality.
Critical QuestionsJan 9, 2012- ReportJan 6, 2012
From international security and regional study to global challenges, CSIS experts will address many of the world's most difficult policy concerns and critical questions in 2012. To kick off the new year, we asked 25 of our scholars to identity what worries them most and what are the biggest opportunities in their respective areas of study.
Defense and Security, International Security, Nuclear Weapons, Acquisition and Resources, Terrorism, Military Strategy, Homeland Security, Economic Development and Reconstruction, Food and Water, Demography, Energy and Climate Change, Markets and Trends, Alternative Energy, Security and Climate Change, Global Health, Human Rights, Technology, Space, Trade and Economics, Global Trends and Forecasting, Global Health Policy, HIV/AIDS, Media Analysis, Global Strategy, Cybersecurity, Regional Analysis, Governance, Technology Policy, Development Policy, Disaster Risk Reduction, Global Prosperity 
ReportDec 27, 2011It is tempting to focus solely on the evolving political crisis and power struggle between Prime Minister Maliki and his opponents, but this is only part of the crisis in Iraq.
Iraq’s Broader Political and Governance Challenges
- ReportDec 20, 2011
The events of the last few days have made it all too clear that the US celebrated the end of the Iraq War without any realism as to the impact of the war and US occupation or the fact that the real result has been to create a new theater of competition between the US and Iran.
