الأبحاث والتعليقات

As the world’s attention was riveted on the lightening conquests of the Islamic State in Iraq, Yemen’s al-Huthi movement made an equally stunning but largely unnoticed military advance on Amran Governorate and captured the provincial capital, Amran, in July. The fall of Amran has extraordinary political significance: The al-Huthi advance dislodged the al-Ahmar family’s grip on the leadership of the Hashid tribal confederation, a central political pillar of the Yemeni Republic since 1962, and threatens the survival of the Islah Party itself.

The outlines of a US strategy to roll back ISIS, or the ‘Islamic State’ as it styles itself, in Iraq have become relatively clear, even if success is uncertain.

Alexandria, like Cairo, is a mismanaged city with little to offer by way of basic services, much less cultural activities. But unlike Egypt’s insular, desert capital, it is a Mediterranean city, cooler, less polluted or crowded than Cairo (with just six million inhabitants), no longer a cosmopolitan hub but open to the world in material and other ways. There are signs here of a trend toward “social transformation”—a focus on the immediate surroundings, the city itself, to explore and expand its possibilities.

A recent statement from the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Abdullah Ocalan, hails a new era for Turkey’s Kurds. In a statement from his cell on the prison island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara, Ocalan said that Turkey was now on the verge of “historic developments” after last week’s presidential elections and declared that through a major democratic negotiation, the 30-year war was coming to an end.

If the future of a nation is built on the competencies learned by its children, then the future of Syria gives cause for great concern. Since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, at least 3 million children have been unable to go to school, the vast majority of them within Syria itself.[1] Interventions are urgently required to educate these children so that they can help rebuild Syria.

Years of Turmoil

If it manages to overcome some rather formidable obstacles, Egypt’s much touted “mega project of the century”—the Suez Canal Corridor Project (SCCP)—has the potential to transform the country into a world-class center for trade and industry.

Malaysia ― Southeast Asia’s second largest oil and gas producer and the world’s second largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) ― is located along the seaborne energy trade channel that binds together the Indian and Pacific oceans. Yet rapidly increasing energy use has led to a sharp rise in Malaysia’s dependence on oil imports and a decline in the surplus of natural gas for export. Under these circumstances, the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak has embarked on an ambitious effort to transform Malaysia into a major maritime energy hub and revitalize the oil and gas (O&G) sector. This essay discusses the major steps that Malaysia has taken in pursuit of these goals and the ways in which Malaysia-Gulf Arab energy relations have changed as a consequence.

As voters headed for the polling stations in late May to elect a president for the second time since Hosni Mubarak’s 2011 ouster, the interim authority announced the state budget for the 2014 financial year. The budget included austerity measures that were sure to be painful for ordinary Egyptians, and the timing of the announcement suggests that the interim authority wanted to shield the new president from responsibility.

The Tunisian transitional justice has not drawn upon the Islamic tradition and would almost certainly not have been able to do so in a way that contributes to the ultimate success of transitional justice there. Why? This article will answer that question by focusing upon the circumstances of Tunisian transitional justice and by comparing them to the transitional justice process in Aceh, Indonesia, where Islamic practices were to some degree drawn upon. These case studies demonstrate that local cultural or religious practices must have widespread legitimacy and popular acceptance if they are to effectively contribute to transitional justice.

The enormous costs exacted on Palestinians in Gaza by Israel’s Operation Protective Edge have sparked a rocky rehabilitation of Egyptian attitudes toward Palestinians among Egypt’s political class and the public at large. Consequently, the Sisi government may see the merits of moderating the hardline approach to Gaza that has characterized Egypt’s polices since the ousting of President Mohammad Morsi one year ago.

Discussions between Egypt and Other Concerned Parties

Days before the first anniversary of the August 14 violent police crackdown on the Rabaa and Nahda squares in Cairo, Egypt’s High Administrative Court ordered the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the liquefaction of its assets.[1] Since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters have faced a state crackdown. Thousands are currently in prison and hundreds have been killed in clashes with security.

Read full article at Foreign Policy.

One hundred and sixty-three years before the Islamic State’s band of thugs rolled into the city, terrorizing the city’s minorities, my Protestant missionary ancestor, his wife, and two children settled in Mosul, a long way from the home they left behind in Utica, New York.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won the presidential election in Turkey’s first direct presidential election on Sunday, extending his 12-year grip on power. Despite heavy campaigning and the financial support from public funds, he won the election with only 51.95 percent of the vote, slightly higher than the minimum required to win the election.

Read full article at The Washington Post.