On January 26, Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir accused Iran of spreading its ideological and military influence throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Addressing Egypt’s economic woes remains a matter of urgency for the stability of the government and the country as a whole. Egypt’s economic recovery plan, which was spearheaded by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in 2015, promised an improvement in living standards and social justice in the Middle East’s most populous nation. More than two years since the president assumed power, living standards have yet to see much improvement.
“[Food insecurity has] the potential to amplify destabilization, engender violence, and even accelerate state failure processes in an already geopolitically charged region”
– Andy Spiess in Food Security in the GCC Economies (2012)
I. Introduction
Regional Cooperation Series
This Policy Paper is part of The Middle East Institute’s Regional Cooperation Series. Throughout 2016, MEI will be releasing several policy papers by renowned scholars and experts exploring possibilities to foster regional cooperation across an array of sectors. The purpose is to highlight the myriad benefits and opportunities associated with regional cooperation, and the high costs of the continued business-as-usual model of competition and intense rivalry.
Summary
Regional Cooperation Series
This Policy Paper is part of The Middle East Institute’s Regional Cooperation Series. Throughout 2016, MEI will be releasing several policy papers by renowned scholars and experts exploring possibilities to foster regional cooperation across an array of sectors. The purpose is to highlight the myriad benefits and opportunities associated with regional cooperation, and the high costs of the continued business-as-usual model of competition and intense rivalry.
Summary
Abstract
This paper is part of a MEI scholar series titled “The Middle East and the 2016 Presidential Elections.”
Many used to say that unlike other countries that have an army, Algeria is an army that has a country. As 2016 begins, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika—no mere client of the army—has consolidated his authority and empowered his allies in Africa’s largest nation. However, questions about Algeria’s political and economic stability loom large in the new year.
For many, an interest in the natural resources of the Middle East begins and ends with oil. However, in a region where systems of agriculture and manufacturing are threatened by increasing desertification and pervasive aridity, the amount, distribution, and control of water is drawing increased international attention.
Keynote Speaker, Amb. Susan Rice, U.S. National Security Advisor.
The Arab Awakening: America and the Transformation of the Middle East, by Kenneth Pollack and Daniel Byman et al., 2011
“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.