Research & Commentary Results

This essay is part of the Middle East-Asia Project (MAP) series on “’Civilianizing’ the State in the Middle East and Asia Pacific Regions.” The series explores the past and ongoing processes of Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Asia-Pacific countries and examines the steps already taken and still needed in the MENA region. See More

In the wake of the revolutionary fervor that has swept the Middle East and North Africa since the beginning of 2011, retributive justice has taken precedence over restorative justice approaches as countries seek to address human rights violations.

In May 2013, Libya’s General National Congress (GNC) overwhelmingly passed the Political Isolation Law (PIL). The PIL’s enactment represented a far-reaching attempt to prevent members of the regime of Muammar Qaddafi from holding public office during the country’s transition. But the decision also appeared to fit a precarious pattern of post-conflict accountability in Libya, which has been characterized by acts of vengeance and one-sided justice aimed at anyone associated with the defeated regime. The passage of the law also reflects the current state of political instability in Libya wherein decisions are politically motivated and often forced at the barrel of the gun rather than agreed upon through public consultation and democratic decision-making.

Since questions of post-atrocity accountability began to surface in regard to the “Arab Spring,” there has been interest in the pursuit of international-led justice in countries that have experienced uprisings, such as Bahrain, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. There were calls for the involvement of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in both Libya and Syria. The ICC has become involved only in Libya. However, this involvement has become mired in struggles that expose the challenges of a system that some regard as simply another expression of a profoundly undemocratic international order.

Keynote Speaker, Amb. Susan Rice, U.S. National Security Advisor. 

The situation in Libya one year after the attack on the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 is chaotic, dysfunctional and disheartening. It remains not as abjectly horrible as it could be—the General National Congress did this summer finally approve a framework (however imperfect) for electing a constitutional assembly, and UN-backed efforts are under way to create an unofficial dialogue of national reconciliation—but these advances paper over ever-deeper failings, many of which were not inevitable.

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

The Arab Awakening: America and the Transformation of the Middle East, by Kenneth Pollack and Daniel Byman et al., 2011

Even before I left India for Cairo, I had the impression that there was a special relationship between India and Egypt. Indeed, within a few weeks of my arrival in Cairo, I found tangible manifestations that it was indeed so and discovered many more in due course.

“Compromise” is the word repeated 25 times in this three-voice dialogue with opposing views on what could be the best solution to the Western Sahara dispute. The settlement options that emerged from the three contributors to this series have accepted either autonomy for the Western Sahara territory (subject to a referendum) or a referendum on self-determination that would include independence as well as other possibilities, including autonomy.

The upheavals which spread across North Africa in 2011 changed the political map of the region. With the downfall of longstanding rulers, the European Union has sought to re-launch a policy dialogue informed by an awareness of human rights issues and to support the process of democratic transition in its Mediterranean neighbors.

Responses to: Solving the Western Sahara — What Now Remains

China and the Middle East: Rising Power and a Region in Turmoil Featuring:Dr. Yitzhak Shichor, Professor of political science and Asian studies, University of Haifa Dr. Dawn Murphy, Princeton-Harvard China and the World Postdoctoral Fellow Moderated by: Sam Chester, Masters candidate in China and the Middle East studies, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies Tuesday, December 4, 201212:00-1:30pm Middle East InstituteBoardman Room1761 N Street, NWWashington D.C., 20036 This program features three experts on China’s relations with the Middle East.

China and the Middle East: Rising Power and a Region in Turmoil Featuring:Dr. Yitzhak Shichor, Professor of political science and Asian studies, University of Haifa Dr. Dawn Murphy, Princeton-Harvard China and the World Postdoctoral Fellow Moderated by: Sam Chester, Masters candidate in China and the Middle East studies, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies Tuesday, December 4, 201212:00-1:30pm Middle East InstituteBoardman Room1761 N Street, NWWashington D.C., 20036 This program features three experts on China’s relations with the Middle East.

China and the Middle East: Rising Power and a Region in Turmoil Featuring:Dr. Yitzhak Shichor, Professor of political science and Asian studies, University of Haifa Dr. Dawn Murphy, Princeton-Harvard China and the World Postdoctoral Fellow Moderated by: Sam Chester, Masters candidate in China and the Middle East studies, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies Tuesday, December 4, 201212:00-1:30pm Middle East InstituteBoardman Room1761 N Street, NWWashington D.C., 20036 This program features three experts on China’s relations with the Middle East.