Research & Commentary Results

This article originally appeared in Foreign Policy.

History weighs heavily on any political movement, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria is no different. Over eight decades, the group has adapted to survive. This malleability has kept the Brotherhood, or Ikhwan, alive as an independent organization, but historical experiences have changed it in profound ways and are helping to marginalize it during the current crisis.

This article first appeared on Lobe Log.

Whenever a Saudi Arabian king or senior prince publicly criticizes U.S. policy, they inevitably touch off speculation about how the Saudis may be rethinking their security alliance with the United States.

Like pieces fitting together in a jigsaw puzzle, Arab governments – presumably from the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council – offered to finance a U.S. military strike on Syria, according to comments made by Secretary of State John Kerry during testimony September 4 with the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In an exchange with Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) on the potential cost of U.S. military action in Syria, Kerry said,

When King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and his foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, issued unequivocal pledges of support for Egypt’s military government and its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, their move was widely depicted in the news media as a logical extension of the kingdom’s opposition to revolutionary movements in the Arab world. This simplistic view overlooks the fact that Saudi Arabia has responded differently to different uprisings—it supports the rebels in Syria, helped to crush them in Bahrain—and that aligning itself with Egypt’s new rulers could be a risky strategy.

Co-authored by W. Robert Pearson, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey. This article first appeared on The Huffington Post.

Decoding Al-Qaeda’s Strategy: The Deep Battle Against America by Michael W.S. Ryan, 2013

Since the 1970s oil boom, the Gulf region has been one of the principal destinations for workers from South Asia, with the result that today Indians constitute a large percentage of the non-nationals living in the region. Indeed, at five million out of an estimated 15 million people, the Indian community forms the largest expatriate group in each of the Gulf countries. Most Indian immigrants are from the south Indian state of Kerala, while many of the rest originate from Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.

Revolt in Syria: Eye-Witness to the Uprising, by Stephen Starr, 2012

Iraqis who cast their votes in postponed local elections in Anbar and Nineveh on 20 June had a lot on their plates. Beyond issues relating to the provision of services locally, the last weeks before the elections saw massive protests against the central government in Baghdad. The many angry slogans on display included calls for greater autonomy for the Sunni-majority areas of Iraq as well as expressions of solidarity with the mainly Sunni Syrian opposition movement.

When the young Shaykh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani became ruler of Qatar last month after his father stepped aside in a seamless transition, one of his first official acts was to seal the generational shift by appointing a new prime minister.

The sun is beating down and it isn’t even midday. Clutching the all-important paperwork that will get them coveted UN food vouchers, Syrian refugees look harried. The women pull at their children to hurry through the litter-filled yard of the sports club in the town of Bar Elias that serves as a distribution center for the UN’s hard-pressed World Food Program (WFP). Unlike their men, who head for the shade to smoke and exchange news, the women don’t dally, making for the snaking lines into a crowded hall where they will be called in groups by registration numbers.

Randa Slim, MEI Scholar and adjunct research fellow at the New America Foundation, discusses the implications of Hezbollah's growing role in Syria for Lebanese politics and Lebanon's Shiite community.

The Middle East Institute is pleased to welcome MEI Scholar Randa Slim for a discussion on the implications of Hezbollah’s growing role in Syria for Lebanese politics and Lebanon’s Shiite community. Recently returned from a trip to the region, Slim will examine Hezbollah’s potential end game in Syria, and whether Lebanon will be able to resist being drawn into the conflict following Hezbollah’s plunge into the Syrian abyss.

The Middle East Institute is pleased to welcome MEI Scholar Randa Slim for a discussion on the implications of Hezbollah’s growing role in Syria for Lebanese politics and Lebanon’s Shiite community. Recently returned from a trip to the region, Slim will examine Hezbollah’s potential end game in Syria, and whether Lebanon will be able to resist being drawn into the conflict following Hezbollah’s plunge into the Syrian abyss.