Obama’s Mideast Speech: Two Steps Back, One Step Forward
Barack Obama’s Mideast speech shows that the United States has not yet adapted to the regional realities brought about by the Arab Spring.
On the Eve of Obama’s Middle East Speech
President Obama has the chance to completely retool U.S. policy in the Middle East in the context of the Arab Spring – but it doesn’t look likely that he will.
Arab Spring, Turkish Summer?
Does Turkey provide a political and economic model for the democracy activists in the Arab world?
Has Tunisia’s March Towards Democracy Been Halted in Its Tracks?
Behind the scenes, deposed Tunisian President Ben Ali’s old security network is still a force to contend with.
Brown Bag Discussion: The Arab Spring Missing From Headlines
The Arab Spring continues – hopeful, dangerous, transformative all at the same time. Egypt’s new government struggles to craft new governance and a new foreign policy, including new relations with the U.S., Palestine and Israel. Palestinian refugees channel the Arab Spring through their Nakba Day marches to Israel’s borders to assert their international law-mandated right of return.
Don’t Count Bashar Out
The protests in Syria are encouraging, but Bashar al-Assad will pull out all the stops before he leaves voluntarily.
The Game is Changing in Iran
Iran’s inner turmoil and the rapid change sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa don’t bode well for its regime.
Osama’s Descent
This is too hot to be an Arab Spring.
Playing into Osama Bin Laden’s Hands
His greatest magic trick was to persuade the United States and its allies to expend enormous sums of money to fight a small, isolated, and anachronistic force that operated on the very margins of the Muslim world.
Justice, Vengeance, and Osama Bin Laden
This could have been a moment to replace vengeance with cooperation, replace war with justice.
Justice or Vengeance?
In the midst of the Arab Spring, which directly rejects al-Qaeda-style small-group violence in favor of mass-based, society-wide mobilization and non-violent protest to challenge dictatorship and corruption, does the killing of Osama bin Laden represent ultimate justice, or even an end to the “unfinished business” of 9/11?
U.S. Silences on the Arab Spring are Deafening
The Obama administration has hardly said a peep about the need for democracy in Saudi Arabia or the other oil-rich states of the Gulf, even as those regimes are cracking down on the small but growing number of democracy activists in their midst.
Arab Spring Forecast
It’s raining bullets in Libya, with cold hearts prevailing in Oman.
The Internet: Tool of Revolution — or Repression?
The Internet and social networks are less responsible for the Arab Spring than old-fashioned activism.
Palestine, the Arab Spring, and the Middle East Lobby
During the upheavals sweeping the Arab world, a common refrain among hawkish supporters of Israel has been that the Arab street is indifferent to the plight of the Palestinians.