Research & Commentary Results

Originally posted June 2011

Originally posted June 2011

Originally posted June 2011

If there is a Horizontal Line that runs from the MAP off your body straight through the Land shooting up right through my heart Will this Horizontal Line when asked know how to find Where you end where I begin

— Tori Amos^[1]

In the wake of the recent Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC, Turkish-Iranian relations once again came under scrutiny. As the US and the EU have intensified their efforts to impose sanctions on Iran through the UN Security Council, Turkey’s role in this issue has come into question. Notwithstanding Turkish temporary membership in the Security Council, the Turkish position will be critical for any effective implementation of sanctions.

*This article originally appeared in the Project Syndicate online on May 23, 2011.

As the Arab Spring enters its fourth month, it faces challenges but also presents opportunities. Despite setbacks in Libya, Yemen, and Syria, the democratic wave has already begun to change the Middle East’s political landscape.

The Middle East Institute's Center for Turkish Studies is proud to host Mr.Taha Ozhan, Director General of the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA Ankara), for a discussion on Turkey's upcoming elections on June 12.

The Middle East Insitute is proud to host Amb. Edmund J. Hull (retired) for for a discussion about his recent book High-Value Target: Countering Al Qaeda in Yemen. Hull's book tells the inside story of how al Qaeda's Yemeni safe haven was disrupted during Hull's tenure.

*A version of this article was originally published on ForeignPolicy.com on April 12, 2011

Divide and conquer. That's the strategy Ali Abdullah Saleh has employed for 33 years to remain atop Yemen's extremely diverse political landscape. But the Yemeni president's efforts to keep his country in a state of low-level dysfunction are also at the root of its current problems. Chaos allows Saleh to make politics a family affair, keeping the reins of power in the hands of his sons and nephews.

The Middle East Institute is proud to host Janet Sanderson, Christopher Boucek and Charles Schmitz for a discussion about the challenges facing Yemeni President Abullah Ali Saleh as he confronts a third month of anti-government protests and growing calls for secession from southern separatists. Sanderson will examine US policy toward the Saleh government in the face of demands for reform, while Schmitz will examine the respective players in Yemen's protest movement and the government's response to their demands.

The popular uprisings against authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan and Egypt herald the beginning of a new political era in the Middle East. At the center of this new political order is a generation of young Arabs, educated, highly marginalized, and numerous. The members of the so-called Arab “youth bulge” are demanding neither the unification of the Arab world as espoused by the pan-Arabists of the 1960s, nor an Islamic state of the 1980s, but rather a dignified life, social justice, and freedom.

This Commentary first appeared as an op-ed in Foreign Policy's Middle East Channel on December 21, 2010