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Egypt and the African Union
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (5th R) assumes gavel for a year-long African Union (AU) presidency from the outgoing Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi (5th L), the Egyptian president, during the 33rd African Union Heads of State Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 09, 2020.
  • Commentary
  • Egypt and the African Union

    As Egypt’s presidency of the AU comes to an end, it will have to maintain its focus on Africa to prove that it was not a one-time effort.

    February 10, 2020

    Libya and the Region’s Civil Wars
    Middle East Institute
  • Podcast
  • Libya and the Region’s Civil Wars

    MEI’s Jonathan Winer and Ross Harrison join host Alistair Taylor to discuss the conflict in Libya and how it fits into the broader context of civil wars in the Middle East. 

    February 7, 2020

    Truth is stranger than science fiction: Palestine +100
    Political and social mural paintings and graffiti on the Israeli West Bank barrier in Bethlehem.
  • Analysis
  • Truth is stranger than science fiction: Palestine +100

    As the world increasingly resembles a dystopian film from the 1970s and television news blurs ominously with scenes from Soylent Green, a recent collection of Palestinian science fiction proves both prescient and eerily contemporary.

    February 6, 2020

    The Black Sea should be a US and NATO priority
    Bulgarian and NATO navi ships take part during Bulgarian-NATO military navy exercise in the Black sea, east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Friday, July, 10, 2015.
  • Analysis
  • The Black Sea should be a US and NATO priority

    The Black Sea is a very important region for NATO, and has not received the attention it deserves; a separate focused NATO strategy and support for countries in the Black Sea would send a message that the Alliance takes the region seriously.

    February 6, 2020

    Damascus battles economic collapse as the Syrian pound plummets
    A merchant counts Syrian pound notes, bearing a portrait of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at the Bzourieh market in the centre of the Syrian capital Damascus on September 11, 2019.
  • Analysis
  • Damascus battles economic collapse as the Syrian pound plummets

    Faced with the threat of further sanctions, a volatile situation in neighboring Lebanon, and a brutally tough winter, the only thing currently rising from the embers of war-torn Syria is the value of the dollar against the struggling Syrian pound. This marks the beginning of a dangerous new phase in the Syrian conflict as the government, fresh from its eight-year-long war for survival, tries to fend off an economic collapse from within. 

    Trump’s Curious Multilateralism
  • Analysis
  • Trump’s Curious Multilateralism

    His administration may end up besting its predecessors’ records in bringing partners together in the Persian Gulf.

    February 4, 2020

    As Turkey-Russia ties warm, will Georgia be left out in the cold?
    Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu (L) meets Foreign Minister of Georgia David Zalkaliani (R) in Tbilisi, Georgia on December 23, 2019.
  • Analysis
  • As Turkey-Russia ties warm, will Georgia be left out in the cold?

    Turkey’s blossoming relationship with Russia has not only raised eyebrows in Washington and Western European capitals, it has also caused a great deal of discomfort in countries like Georgia that have borne the brunt of Russian aggression. A few recent scattered signals from Ankara, however, might comfort Turkey’s northeastern neighbor.

    A fight for survival in a new landscape: Can Yemen’s GPC recover after Saleh?
    Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh gives a speech addressing his supporters during a rally as his General People's Congress party, marks 35 years since its founding, at Sabaeen Square in the capital Sanaa on August 24, 2017.
  • Analysis
  • A fight for survival in a new landscape: Can Yemen’s GPC recover after Saleh?

    Since the death of its founder Ali Abdullah Saleh on Dec. 4, 2017, the General People’s Congress (GPC) — Yemen’s dominant political party for the past four decades — has faced a test in attempting to reunify its divided wings in Riyadh, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, and Sanaa amid a shifting strategic landscape. The GPC’s factions have competed over the party leadership, failed to elect a transitional leader, and exchanged accusations following the Saudi-brokered meeting in Jeddah in July 2019. Nevertheless, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh’s attempts to revive Saleh’s damaged old political vehicle continue, both politically and militarily.

    February 4, 2020

    What Makes a Movement Violent: Comparing the Ahle Hadith (Salafists) in India and Pakistan
     (Photo by Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images)
  • Analysis
  • What Makes a Movement Violent: Comparing the Ahle Hadith (Salafists) in India and Pakistan

    This article examines the Salafist movements in Pakistan and North India (known as the Ahle Hadith movement), which originated in the colonial era in India. The article seeks to explain what led Salafist/Ahle Hadith organizations in Pakistan, though not those in India, to adopt violence.

    February 4, 2020

    Turkey’s Parliamentary Purge and the HDP’s Dilemma
    A picture shows election flags displaying imprisoned Selahattin Demirtas, Presidential candidate and leader of People's Democratic Party (HDP) in Ankara, on June 19, 2018.
  • Analysis
  • Turkey’s Parliamentary Purge and the HDP’s Dilemma

    In 2016 the Turkish parliament voted to revoke parliamentary immunity and initiated the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) political purge of MPs with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). Despite the introduction of a new assembly in 2018, Turkey’s October invasion of northeast Syria provided ample incentives for the launch of new investigations into HDP members protesting the operation. The targeting of the HDP has set new legal and political precedents that could undermine the political capacity of the opposition coalition as a whole and create ideological divisions over the so-called “Kurdish Question.” This report records documented arrests of HDP MPs from June 2016 to January 2018 in order to identify prominent trends and waves of arrests that correspond to political and legal events.

    February 4, 2020

    Lebanon’s inconvenient truths: A brief rejoinder
    Anti-government protesters demonstrate ahead of the expected naming of a new cabinet tomorrow by Prime Minister Designate Hassan Diab, on January 16, 2020 in Beirut, Lebanon.
  • Commentary
  • Lebanon’s inconvenient truths: A brief rejoinder

    In response to numerous comments from readers about his article “Lebanon’s inconvenient truths,” author Bilal Saab has published a brief rejoinder.

    February 3, 2020

    Idlib tests Turkey-Russia ties
    A Turkish military convoy of tanks and armoured vehicles passes through the Syrian town of Dana, east of the Turkish-Syrian border in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, on February 2, 2020.
  • Commentary
  • Idlib tests Turkey-Russia ties

    The escalating tensions between Turkey and Russia over Idlib did not come as a surprise to many outside the Turkish capital.

    In Syria, we’re getting counter-terrorism all wrong
    Syrian families, who have been forced to displace due to the ongoing attacks carried out by Assad regime and Russia, are seen on their way to safer zones with their belongings, at Atme camps in Idlib, Syria on January 19, 2020.
  • Analysis
  • In Syria, we’re getting counter-terrorism all wrong

    While proclamations of ISIS’s defeat were certainly premature, international policy and attention on countering terrorism in Syria has since declined — as if to suggest that the job is done. In fact, as 2020 sets in, the world seems to be getting counter-terrorism all wrong in Syria, in three interlinked ways.