Research & Commentary Results

A question as to the value of a U.S.-Egypt Free Trade Agreement (FTA) misses the point. The question should not be whether an FTA would be in the interest of both parties since there is abundant evidence that it would. The question is what kind of FTA would best suit the needs, both short and long term, of the two parties: shallow integration or deep integration? This report argues that notwithstanding several hurdles, it is in the interest of both countries to move swiftly and decisively toward a deep FTA.

Eight years after the revolution, Tunisians seem to be swinging between disenchantment and anti-establishment backlash.

Tonight will be the first of three nights of televised debates among election lists for next Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Tunisia. The first round of presidential elections on Sept. 15 garnered greater international media attention, but the constitution gives the prime minister, who must gain backing from a parliamentary majority, control over domestic policies. Thus, the Oct. 6 election is crucial to Tunisia’s future.

The weekend of the 23rd saw small demonstrations in approximately five governorates that had the twitterverse in an uproar and rekindled mostly moribund international interest in democracy in Egypt.

In late July, Lt. Gen. Michael Anker Lollesgaard left Yemen after his six-month term as the second head of the UN Mission in support of the Hodeida Agreement (UNMHA) came to an end. Unlike his predecessor, Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, who departed quietly, Lollesgaard was given a proper sendoff from Sana’a. A senior Houthi commander, Maj. Gen. Ali al-Musheki, even went so far as to describe Lollesgaard as “a conscientious military commander.”

This week’s briefing on recent news and upcoming events in the region featuring Ruba Husari, Paul Salem, Gerald Feierstein, Amal Kandeel, Grace Wermenbol, Robert S. Ford, Charles Lister, and Gonul Tol.

This week’s briefing on recent news and upcoming events in the region featuring Marvin G. Weinbaum, Robert S. Ford, Fatima Abo Alasrar, Jean-François Seznec, Michael Sexton and Eliza Campbell.

On September 15, Tunisia will hold a presidential election brought forward two months by the unexpected death of patriarchal President Beji Caid Essebsi. Much of the election analysis so far has been flawed, sometimes because of Western, Middle Eastern, ideological, or wishful analytical filters disconnected from Tunisian realities. Here are seven keys to understanding the elections that address core mischaracterizations and misperceptions.

Water scarcity is a global concern that disproportionately affects the Middle East. Mirette Mabrouk, director of MEI’s Egypt program, joins host Alistair Taylor to discuss steps Egypt has taken to manage its own water resources, and what more needs to be done to mitigate the impact of climate change.

Tunisia is an important security partner for Germany, and a key part of the Federal Republic’s enhanced security involvement in the MENA region. Germany is due to release a new strategy for working on security sector assistance and reform abroad, which will give direction to work in Tunisia and elsewhere. Examining how Germany has performed according its own stated principles in Tunisia highlights policy points for this new strategy, covering greater commitment to governance, gendered security and transparency. With German security spending on the rise, there is a lot to play for.

The article was first published by the Atlantic Council.

This week’s briefing on recent news and upcoming events in the region including the Turkish-U.S. crisis meeting in Ankara on Syria, the resumption of U.S.-Taliban negotiations, Trump’s creation of a new “dovish” line on Iran, a rise in Egypt’s poverty levels, Sudan’s democratic transition, the easing of female guardianship rules in Saudi Arabia, and the end of the ceasefire in Idlib, featuring Charles Lister, Marvin G. Weinbaum, Paul Salem, W. Robert Pearson, Mirette F. Mabrouk, Thomas W. Lippman, and Robert S. Ford.

Laudatory statements and obituaries are pouring in for Béji Caïd Essebsi, who died last Thursday, July 25, in Tunis, and have emphasized his singular landmark accomplishment: serving as Tunisia’s first democratically elected president. While Essebsi’s legacy as president will be mixed, and he may not have been the greatest promoter of democratic praxis, he did emerge as Tunisian democracy’s greatest defender. What he leaves Tunisia and the world is a brilliant incomplete experiment, and, despite the growing resilience of Tunisians tested at the borders and in unruly borderlands, still a fragile experiment.

Many of the divisions in the Arab World today are ideological and revolve around narratives — carefully constructed ontological representations of both how the world works and how it is supposed to work conforming to clearly set out interests and values. While the old sectarian narratives might still play an underlying role, what divides Arabs from Morocco to Oman are different grand-strategic visions of the region’s future after the Arab Spring.

This week’s briefing on recent news and upcoming events in the region including Imran Khan’s visit to the White House, tensions between President Trump and Congress over Turkey’s new S-400 system, escalation in the Straits of Gibraltar and Hormuz, military restructuring in Iraq, increased collaboration on the region’s power supply, and changes to Egypt’s social safety net, featuring Arif Rafiq, Gonul Tol, Ruba Husari, Robert S. Ford, Dr. Ibrahim Saif, and Mirette F. Mabrouk.