Region Related Event Feeds

2012 Global Forecast

ian — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

TWQ: Egypt’s Troubled Transition: Elections without Democracy - Spring 2012

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

With the convening of the country’s first post-revolutionary parliament in late January 2012, Egypt’s troubled transition has entered a new phase. As the battle over Egypt’s future shifts from Tahrir Square to the newly elected People’s Assembly, Egyptians may be facing their most difficult challenges yet.

U.S. And Iranian Strategic Competition: The Proxy Cold War in the Levant, Egypt and Jordan

sherry — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

US competition with Iran has become the equivalent of a game of three-dimensional chess, but a game where each side can modify at least some of the rules with each move.

Egypt and U.S. Health Assistance

jdunton — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Few 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.

Middle East Notes and Comment: The Arab Decade?

dholodnik — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

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.

Egypt in Transition: Insights and Options for U.S. Policy

dholodnik — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Egypt’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 Questions for 2012

ian — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

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.

The Role of FTA Negotiations in the Future of U.S.-Egypt Relations

jdunton — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Egypt, a long-time ally with profound influence on U.S. security, is facing the daunting prospect of making the transition from decades of authoritarianism to democracy.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Allies at Odds

mDziuban — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The United States is used to looking for trouble from its enemies, but a growing set of problems will emerge from its allies. In the eastern Mediterranean, three U.S. allies are increasingly at loggerheads, and the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.

TWQ: American and European Responses to the Arab Spring: What’s the Big Idea? - Fall 2011

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

How can Europe and the United States support democratic transitions in a way that is acceptable to the Arab countries, effective in inducing genuine change, and affordable at a time when both continents are confronting fiscal crises?

TWQ: Liberty, Democracy, and Discord in Egypt - Fall 2011

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

If hope was the dominant psychology of the protests that unseated Hosni Mubarak, then fear is proving to be that of their aftermath. The unity of the disparate forces that made history during those 18 days in Tahrir Square has given way to discord.

TWQ: The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted - Fall 2011

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Judging by the popular press, in January 2011 Twitter and Facebook went from being simply engaging social diversions to become engines of political change that upended decades of Arab authoritarianism.

Middle East Notes and Comment: A Troubling Mix

mDziuban — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Five months in, Egypt's post-Mubarak politics have yet to take shape. With parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in only two months, and with Egyptians still wondering if they will vote for district representatives, national party lists, or some hybrid system, July's uncertainty has replaced February's euphoria.

The Earthquake: How Egypt Emerges From Uncertainty

ian — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Egypt is not Tunisia. When Tunisian president Zine El-Abidine Bin Ali fl ed Tunis on January 14, it was a curiosity in the Middle East. Tunisia had long nurtured pretentions of being more European than Arab, and its relatively small population cast a scant shadow on the Arab world.

Middle East Notes and Comment: The Earthquake

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

When Hosni Mubarak resigned on February 11, it was an earthquake that shook the entire region, and shakes it still. Egypt had long ago lost its mantle as the leader of the Arab world, but it was certainly its center of gravity. How Egypt emerges from its current uncertainty will shape the coming decades in the entire Middle East.

Middle East Notes and Comment: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

It is tempting to see the political protests sweeping the Middle East as "Facebook Revolutions"; to see the Internet as a force that galvanizes hundreds of thousands of young people into a new political force that breathes life into stolid authoritarian regimes. But the Internet is only part of the story. Good old-fashioned television is probably more important in turning

DIIG Current Issues No. 23: U.S. Military Aid and Sales to Egypt

gsanders — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The recent popular protests in Egypt, and the concurrent images of U.S.-made tanks and tear gas canisters, have brought scrutiny upon the historical and remarkably constant U.S. military assistance to Egypt.

Middle East Civil Unrest and Oil Prices

ian — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Q1: How have increased political tensions and antigovernment demonstrations in the Middle East and North Africa affected global oil supplies?

If Mubarak Leaves: The Role of the Egyptian Military

ian — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

It is tempting to rush to judgment about the role the Egyptian military will play if Mubarak really does leave.

PacNet #7A - Responses to PacNet #7 -- Can Mubarak Follow South Korea’s Path?

bMizuno — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Peter Beck:

A Threat Transformed

jdunton — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Middle East Notes and Comment: Drawing the Wrong Lessons

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Mubarak's end is near, but the danger is that other Arab leaders will draw the wrong lesson from his fall. Rather than concluding that Mubarak was too wed to the ideas of the past, they are likely to conclude he was insufficiently cautious of abandoning those ideas.

Military Aid to Egypt: A Critical Link

ian — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Calls in Washington to suspend military aid to Egypt are fuelling an already blazing fire. Although a serious review of the $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid to Egypt is long overdue, raising the threat in the midst of a burning crisis is dangerous. The Egyptian military, the primary beneficiary of U.S. aid, will play a significant role in shaping the contours of the post-Mubarak system.

Egypt and Tunisia (and, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan)

ian — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

There is no one cause behind the upheavals in Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen. The causes are political and ideological, and cannot be separated from the religious, ethnic, sectarian, and tribal tensions in given countries. It is clear from the statements of many demonstrators that they are angry at repression, corruption, and a lack of basic justice.

Getting the Message

mDziuban — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The public protests in Egypt are not about minor changes or grievances. Mubarak's regime faces a deep process of legitimacy erosion that has been decades in the making. A unique set of historical, social and religious forces is challenging Mubarak's regime and U.S. understandings of how to remain engaged with it.

PacNet #7 - Can Mubarak Follow South Korea’s Path?

bMizuno — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

As the world holds its breath to learn if the Egyptian people’s amazing struggle for democracy ends in a breakthrough or a bloodbath, President Hosni Mubarak would do well to consider the South Korea option. Ultimately, Korea’s dictators and democracy were both winners.

The Impact of Egyptian Unrest on Oil Markets

mentman — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Q1: Oil prices have moved steadily upward in the past few weeks. How will the crisis in Egypt affect price movements?

Events in Egypt

ian — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Q1: What is at stake for the United States in Egypt?

Clear Gold

jdunton — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

The real wild card for political and social unrest in the Middle East over the next 20 years is not war, terrorism, or revolution—it is water. Conventional security threats dominate public debate and government thinking, but water is the true game-changer in Middle Eastern politics.

الذهب الزُلال

mentman — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0500

لن تنبع القلاقل السياسية والاجتماعية خلال العشرين عاما القادمة في الشرق الأوسط من الحروب، أو الإرهاب، أو الثورات، بل من منبع مفاجئ مستتر- إنه المياه.

The Arab-Israeli Military Balance in 2010

amausner — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Major changes are taking place in the Arab-Israeli military balance.

How the US Must Expand and Redefine International Cooperation in Fighting Terrorism

amausner — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

As Americans we naturally focus on the most direct threats to the United States, and what all too many in the West have seen as a clash between civilizations. It is important, however, to keep what is happening in perspective.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Waiting for the Deluge

mDziuban — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

In a region that already has enough conflicts, another one is brewing, and it comes from a surprising source: the Nile. The river that witnessed history from the pharaohs through the Bible and on to the nationalist revolution of 1952 seems poised to enter a new phase, and there may not be enough water to go around.

Middle East Notes and Comment: House of the Rising Son

mDziuban — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500

It is a strange kind of republic in which presidents serve for life. It is an even stranger one in which rulers inherit power from their fathers. Yet, that is the direction in which the Arab Republic of Egypt is going.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Defining Engagement

mDziuban — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

For much of last month, dramatic images out of Tehran displaced a brewing debate over “engaging Iran.” Similar debates over engaging Hamas and Hezbollah fell by the wayside, too, and the debate over engaging Syria seemed to have been decided in the affirmative, with the announcement that the United States would return an ambassador to Damascus for the first time in more than four ye

Middle East Notes and Comment: Authoritarian Democracies and Democratic Authoritarianism

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400

For a part of the world that doesn't have a lot of freedom, the Middle East certainly has a lot of elections that count. On May 16, Kuwaitis elected a new parliament, sending women to the chamber for the first time. On June 7, Lebanese will go to the polls, and five days later, Iranians will have their turn.

Middle East Notes and Comment: The Magic is Gone

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400

It’s no secret that the U.S.-Egyptian relationship is ailing. As his term went on, President George W. Bush seemed to go to Egypt principally to deliver stern lectures. After years of visiting Washington every spring, President Hosni Mubarak stopped coming Washington at all.

Transnational Threats Update March 2009 - Vol. 7, No. 3

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400

In this issue:

Middle East Notes and Comment: Should the Party Be Over?

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0500

There is a certain logic to the idea that political change in the Middle East should go through political parties. Parties have leaders, activists, and agendas. They are wonderful at mobilizing people for a common purpose. They have been successful pushing democracy around the world, from Eastern Europe to South Africa to East Asia.

Middle East Notes and Comment: Ray of Hope or False Dawn?

Mon, 15 Dec 2003 00:00:00 -0500

Two weeks ago, former hard-line Saudi clerics Nasser al-Fahd and Ali al- Khudeir took to the airwaves to condemn acts of violence in the kingdom. Their action goes to the heart of a debate that so far has been woefully insufficient: the proper role that orthodox Islam should play in efforts to confront those who carry out violence in the name of Islam.